Lifestyles of the Frantic and Frazzled: Christmas (Part One)

Boy have we had quite the busy last four days! It was SO great to get home last night and just crash on the couch and watch some TV (never mind the disarray my house is in right now)! The only downside was not being able to fall asleep until after 11pm, and I went to bed at 9:30! Ugh! And I had to get up early this morning for work, double UGH!

Let's rewind back to Wednesday... we left Point after Ayden got done with school on Wednesday and had a safe drive back 'home'. It went well and the roads were great. The traffic wasn't too bad until I got to Appleton at 5pm and hit the busy part, but even then I was able to make it through the probably three mile stretch of road that I hate (over the big bridge and around the four curves) until I hit my exit with little trouble. I exited off easy enough and we made it to Jay's parents house. Jay stayed in Point to work because of the impending snow storm. Kind of a bummer, but it all worked out.

Wednesday night went well enough... we had supper and watched Criminal Minds and went to bed. Christmas Eve morning, we had to head off to my mom's house to open gifts. I think we made it over there shortly before 10am. Christmas Eve and Christmas day were pretty crappy weather wise, not too snowy, but more rainy and sleety. Thankfully, Point didn't get too much snow and Jay was able to join us by noonish at my mom's house.

Ayden had lots of fun opening gifts (and got spoiled beyond belief this year)! It was a great way to spend the majority of the day. In our pajamas, opening gifts, eating yummy food, and relaxing. Jay got the game Monopoly City and we played that. It is a little different than regular Monopoly and takes a little bit to learn (still not sure if we had all the rules down pat) but it was fun! Jay and Casey ganged up on me towards the end though so that I would lose. At first I didn't thinkt that their plan was going to work since the property that they built stuff on is rarely landed upon, but sure enough, one time... and I had to land on it and pay Casey pretty much EVERYTHING I had! No fair! But it was fun. I still say that Monopoly Deal is more fun though! All 'regular' versions of Monopoly take such a long time to play and this city version is no different... we probably played for a good hour or more. During this time, Ayden was busy playing with all his new gifts with my mom! Ayden got a scooter from my mom and Jim for Christmas… he wanted to try it out right away, but of course my mom’s house is WAY too small for that sort of thing. He is able to use it at our house though around the basement which is nice! No waiting until Spring here!Uncle Casey got Ayden some Bakugan for Christmas and he loved them! He definitely got enough of those for Christmas… it was a good thing we didn’t get him any! Okay, here’s the story behind his clown picture and why I look SO excited to get it… OR NOT! This clown is really mine (given to my mom when- or before- I was born from one of her friends as a gift), however I WILL NOT take it with me. I don’t have anything against clowns (I mean I have the movie IT), but to have this clown hanging in my house… I don’t think so! So, it stays hanging at my mom’s because she won’t take it down in fear that it will somehow reappear hanging up, I mean that would be freaky! And so, since I won’t take it, she took a picture of it so I could finally ‘take it home’ with me! Great, right?! Or not! Maybe you have to know us… My brother and his girlfriend… aren’t they super cute together! Becky totally spoiled us this Christmas and got me the cutest jewelry!My mom and Jim’s dog… Misty! She is getting up there in age, it will be sad day when she is no longer around, maybe my mom will get a third cat, haha! After my mom's house, we had to head to Jay's mom's parent's house. This year it kind of sucked because they weren't eating supper until 7-7:30ish and I knew that my mom's parent's (and family) would be done eating by then... so we kind of missed out on supper Christmas Eve night, but had plenty of snack foods to tide us over. We opened gifts at Jay's grandparent's house and visited for a while before we had to hit the icy roads to go to my grandparent's house. Ayden trying out his swimming goggles and flippers! You should have seen him trying to walk in those things, it was hilarious!!! Jay’s cousin Quinn! He is the happiest baby that I have ever seen! We only see him a handful of times a year because his family lives in Iowa, but he is so friendly! Once there, we got the picture thing under way and it went much faster this year without all of the extra ones that people usually took. And believe it or not, we had all the gifts open BEFORE 9pm! I was amazed because usually we don't start until then. Actually, I think we started around 8:30 and if we would have gone one by one or a little slower, it would have taken a lot longer. I was glad though because then the kids could play with what they got and people could visit a little more versus just watching everyone open their gifts. If we wouldn't start so late, I wouldn't mind maybe going a little slower since this year we really sped things up, but since it was already past bedtimes for the kids, I'm glad we went as we did.My family! Aren’t we adorable?! I asked my cousin Amanda to take some pictures for me (and she so kindly obliged- thanks again!) and I kept looking at her, and telling everyone too, because I wanted a good picture with my camera. Well, one of my aunts go frustrated that I wasn’t looking and she kept calling my name and said something pretty funny and my sister and I just cracked up! Needless to say, we did end up looking at my aunt for a good picture for her too!And my whole family… me, Jay, Ayden, sister, brother, mom, mom’s husband, loved the ‘forced’ smile on my mom and brother! Too funny!