...an unusual & crazy christmas.....

This year Christmas was a lot different and a lot crazier than it's been in the past. For one, I've never had six kids to worry about on Christmas morning. That in itself is a feat everyone should try at least once. Just kidding. That is not recommended for those faint of heart. :)

Christmas eve was spent eating homemade deer chili. I even made frito pie for Cordarius to try and he loved it!!! Of course before he tried it I heard alot of "ewww, I don't like that"... but when Becca made her some, he just had to try it. Same thing with carrots the other night in the roast.

Anyways, then we had alot of begging to please let me open at least one gift. And I remained strong in my response of NO, they must all be opened on christmas morning. The children weren't too happy with my response on this.

We made cookies for Santa even though I think we sampled the majority of those cookies. We left the tree lit and sent the children off to bed because we all know Santa doesn't come until all good little kids are asleep.

So with the children off to bed, Santa had to tackle the task of getting all the gifts around the tree. Now for those of you who have been in my house, my living room is very cramped. Not much room at all. And just imagine, there was an equal amount of gifts for each child, gifts for myself, gifts for the hubby, and gifts for the children's mother. There were ALOT!!! More than I've seen in a while for just one family. But between Santa and HER helper, Elf Becca, all the presents AND the stockings made it under the tree or nearby at least. Then Santa was off to sleep to pray that the children waited until the sun came up before they decided to get up.

Well, luckily they did wait til the sun came up. Cordarius was the first one up besides Addison. We made it to the living room and the expression on his face said it all. "Wow! Santa sure did bring alot of stuff last night... is that one mine??" were the first words out of his mouth. We sat on the couch together and fed little Addison waiting to see who the next one up would be. Amazingly, they all stayed asleep. Cordarius was getting antsy so I told him to go next door and tell his momma to come open presents. He goes out on the porch and screams at the top of his lungs, "momma, santa claus came..." I think this woke up the rest of the house because one by one they started piling out of their respective beds.

I had planned to open gifts in an orderly fashion. Okay, so no one warned me that this is near impossible to do. We made it through the first few gifts okay and then Emily became amused with one of her gifts and refused to open any more. So we had to go around her. There was paper everywhere, people trying to hold onto their own gifts, some of us trying to open gifts for Addison, trying to see what everyone got. It was a complete and utter mad house!!! And of course the smaller kids wanted every single toy they received out of the box right then. Not happening. Do you know how much of that stuff made noise???? Way too early in the morning for Momma Bear! So we picked a couple and let them go with that. And wouldn't you know it, somewhere in all that mess was Batman hiding out.
He visited with us for a while until he tired out. And there were trucks to play with, dolls that cried, Blake and his XBox (he holed up in his room for 2 days afterwards), Becca and her cell phone with unlimited text (not sure if she's quit texting yet), clothes, candy, coloring books, you name it, we probably had it there. After the children were through opening their gifts and satisfied it was time for me to see what kind of goodies I had. I received a beautiful vase/candle holder from the hubby, some what nots, and some bath stuff. Not too shabby.



After all the gift giving was over, it was time to tackle dinner. The hubby's baby sister, her fiance, and their three kids came over to eat with us. We had the usual turkey, ham, dressing, and all the side items. It was delicious but after all that cooking my appetite just wasn't there. Oh well, lots of leftovers. It was a nice dinner but with 9 kids there at the time I think my house was wanting a rest.
So all company left and the rest of us laid down for a well deserved nap.

All in all, it was a good christmas. Very hectic and crazy. But I was with family and that's what matters most. To wake up and be able to spend such a blessed day with my beautiful children and this year we had the best gift of all....

Ms. Addison


And now we bid adieu to 2008 and look forward to the year to come and the many blessings it will bring. So long!