Christmas Recap

Christmas 2023 is a wrap! And it was a good one! "Best Christmas ever!" whispered Sweet Pea when she hugged me goodnight at bedtime. As I told my dad later, I hope the kids always think so!

Memere and Pepere arrived on Christmas Eve, and for the first time, CC was an altar server in the church for Christmas Mass that night. In the past, we've always attended the overflow Mass, held in the school cafeteria, but this year CC begged for us to go to the "big Mass" in the church. We were there a full hour in advance, and still barely got seats, and the entire sanctuary was stiflingly, suffocatingly packed for the duration. So I think we'll be back in the school cafeteria next year! 

At home afterwards, we had a lovely meal topped off by our homemade Christmas cookies, and then the kids went to bed and the adults went to work. We all got to sleep at a thankfully reasonable hour, and by the next morning Santa had arrived and the kids were jumping with excitement to get downstairs.

It was over in a flurry, but in a way it was nice -- they had a chance to enjoy their first wave of gifts before Grandma and Grandpa came over in the afternoon with even more! We had a very enjoyable afternoon visiting with each other, exchanging gifts and eating a nice dinner together.

Gift highlights: Little Man got an actual, real Army football helmet; CC got all the art supplies she was coveting, and Sweet Pea wore her Nike Air Max sneakers all day. The twins loved their Legos, and CC shrieked when she saw her giant pink beanbag chair. They were really excited about the Nintendo Switch MJ and I gave them. But my heart was warmed mostly by seeing how eager the kids were to give each other their gifts, and to hand their gifts out to adults. (CC and Sweet Pea also presented Little Man with a gift bag of "coal" -- rocks they'd painted black -- which caused much giggling.)

The next day, Patrick and Karen came over with Braxton and Bryson, and we did yet another round of gifts. "There are only two things I didn't get on my list!" said Braxton as he walked into the house. It was fun to see his face light up when he received those two special requests just a few minutes later! Then all the kids enjoyed playing Mario Cart on our new Nintendo.

After lunch, we celebrated Pepere's birthday with presents, singing, and a yummy ice cream cake. Another great year! He and Memere will celebrate again next week, when they fly to Texas to visit Jon, Susan, Dane and Hayden (who we missed this year!).

In the end, Christmas was just the way I like it: warm and loving, filled with family and laughter.