Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, my friends, from the great green state of Michigan.  We did not have a white Christmas this year, but that's okay.  It's actually in the 40's and quite nice! 

We are having a grand old time with our families and the boys are in love with all of their presents.  In fact, M has a favorite and insists on schlepping it back and forth between the grandparents' homes.  We could barely pry the die cast metal Charger out of his hands for bedtime last night!  They hardly quit playing to eat, sleep, or allow us to change their diapers. It's fun to see them so "into" Christmas for the first time.

Because Hubs' family and my family live just 11 miles apart, we have multiple celebrations to attend on Christmas Eve and Day.  At the first party (below), the boys were digging into the gifts while we were all still eating, despite being allowed to open one of their own to keep them busy.   They had a blast helping pass out the presents, then as we all opened our exchange gifts one at a time, they moved from person to person "helping" them open it up! 

Grandpa and Grandma S. with the grandkids and the greats who are LOOKING at the CAMERA and SMILING!!

I supposed we inadvertently trained them that that's just what you do at Christmas - because they decided to continue passing out gifts and opening them for everyone at the remaining 3 parties!  Fortunately, no one seemed to mind, probably because the boys didn't care what the gift was once it was opened...it was time to move onto the next!

I warned you that my blogging was only going be as good as my technology this week, so I must tell you that my Nikon's memory card doesn't fit into my mom's laptop, so all of my beautiful pictures (once Hubs changed the shutter speed for me) will remain there until we get home, so you'll have to make do with what I can pilfer from Aunt L's facebook page! 

On a side note, I have to tell you a funny story.  I spent an hour or so on Thursday cleaning out and meticulously repacking the boys' Thomas the Train backpacks, each with diapers, wipes, snacks, DVDs and a player and its charger.  There was going to be a chance that Hubs and I would have to separate and each take a boy on a flight alone.  We fly standby and every now and then, especially at the holidays, the flights inexplicably fill up and we have to change plans at the last second.  As we unloaded at the airport, I disconneced a DVD player from the van, and asked, "Where's the Thomas the Train bag?" (to put it in). 

A look of horror of recognition flashed between us as we both instantaneously realized

WE LEFT THE TRAIN BAGS AT HOME.

The fellas know now that the train bags are for flying and that there are special treats and toys in them.  They were half packed and sitting on the kitchen counter charging the DVDs most of the day, but the boys have learned since our last flight that it's possible to drag the dining room chairs across the floor (eek!), so after hollering at them to get out of there several times, one of us who shall remain nameless, removed the bags and put them up high on a shelf.  Where they remain, perfectly packed, for our next flight. 

Those snacks are gonna be stale.

The good news is that our iphones were fully charged with "Lunchbox" aka Monkey Dance and we had one DVD player with one video and most of a charge, and we all made it on the same flight just fine.  Whew!

Merry Christmas, my friend.  May you find much love and peace enjoying Christmas with the ones you love.