One crazy Christmas!

Well we managed to pull off Christmas in the middle of an apparent war zone. We managed to cram our Christmas tree into an already overflowing living room, and got all the presents shopped for despite staining the floor in the basement and painting the upstairs. We even managed to accomodate Chris' family overnight. The kids didn't mind "camping" in their new tent on blowup matresses in the half finished addition. What a crazy mess! I must say, I have never been more relieved to get Christmas put away! Without the tree I feel a little less cramped.

We did have a really great Christmas though despite all the chaos. We went up to my parents the monday before and stayed until Christmas Eve day. We were surprised to discover that my sister from Colorado (who we didn't think was coming) came for Christmas after all. Unfortunately for them a few hours after leaving they got a call from the Pueblo police department. I guess that shortly after they left their house it was broken into, and all their electronics were stolen. They were shaken up and pretty devastated, but we were so glad they weren't home when it happened, and even happier that they could be surrounded by family as they dealt with all that stress, and fear.

We went sledding, played with cousins and ate way too much food. Then we came home Christmas eve. I did some last minute shopping and then we came home to make cookies for santa. We've been a little lazy the past few years and did the ready bake variety with christmas pictures on them. We watched "Joy to the world" the church DVD about the nativity and the kids got to open up their new christmas p.j's and a "little people" nativity set, which they loved. We all went around and decided what gift we were going to give Christ this year and put it in a little blue box my friend gave us. She sent the cutest little poem with a little empty box to put your "gift" (acts of service or improving yourself) to Christ in. The kids really got into it, and it was such a spiritual evening, they really got it this year. I am so proud of my kids. They have such a sweetness about them, and try so hard to be good (most of the time).

After hatching a few schemes to "catch" santa the boys finally agreed to go to bed like they should, but took forever to go to sleep. Then of course Chris and I didn't get to bed until about 3 a.m. nothing like procrastination.

Cai was the first to wake up and he had to practically pry Cole out of bed but finally managed. They ran in to check out their stockings and found the air hockey table. So they played a few games before Cate finally woke up. They got completely spoiled as usual. The boys got the hockey table, a Wii with different games and some smaller toys. It was pretty funny, they kept opening up Wii games and finally Cole said "mom you have to have a game system" (like I was a total idiot) They didn't notice that Santa had already set it up. The way he says things is sooo funny. When he really wants to emphasize something he talks really slow and with almost a southern drawl. "Mawm, yu haf tu have a gaym siyustum." Cate got a princess sleeping bag, a sleeping beauty doll and horse, a princess makeup and hair kit (pretend), can you tell she's into princesses lately. She is totally obesessed. She actually asked me the other day, "mom will you marry me?" I told her she will have to find a boy to marry when she is big, big, big. So now she always asks "mom will a boy marry me?" when I say yes she jumps up and down and says Yaaahhy! SOOOO SCARY!

My in-laws were kind enough to take the kids for five days so we could get started painting. I can't believe it took us 4 days to paint the upstairs family room. It had alot of trim work and I did a mural on one wall, but still, it was ridiculous. We thought we would be getting the hardwood down by now! Chris about had a heart-attack when I put the colors on the walls and ceiling to test them. I really wanted a pale chartreuse green ceiling to tie in the mural and grey/taupe walls. He was extremely skeptical and kept asking what's wrong with white. I promised him that I had been contemplating this color scheme for about 6 months and I probably spent more time contemplating that than my decision to marry him (totally joking, we dated for 2 years before marriage). After asking him if he had ever been dissapointed by a room I had painted and he had to admit no (even though I have painted some wild rooms they pull together). New Year's Eve we went out for Taco Bell at about 9:30. we really wanted to go someplace nicer, but were covered in paint. So we opted for one of the few drive-thru's that were open, and painted in the New Year!