Christmas, the recap.

After being a bit of a grinch for most of December, Christmas came all the same.

Ironically, we celebrated the start of our Christmas weekend on December 22 with a trip to the Children's Theater to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  It was a wonderful show.  We then headed to Pizza Luce in Downtown Minneapolis.  Unfortunately, Zach's flu decided to return and we were forced to hurry through dinner to get him home to bed.  Between family time and giving with Colin, I could no longer find my Grinch.

On Sunday morning, Molly sang in church.  Zach was still running a fever, so just Molly and I went.  She really has a gift for performance and I left church with a big smile on my face just watching her shine.  The smile didn't last long, since work awaited at home.  I recruited Molly and Colin to help me cook.  Together we prepared two pans of lasagna, complete with homemade sauce!  Work is so much more enjoyable when you share it.  So, we also made homemade egg nog, cookies for santa, breakfast treats, ice cream, and appetizers galore!  I celebrated all of this cooking by heading out to dinner with my girlfriends.  Having a good time with my kids and friends made me feel like maybe I had buried the Grinch within forever.

Christmas Eve morning came early.  Zach was still a bit under the weather and had trouble sleeping the night before.  As I brought him downstairs to allow everyone else some rest, we discovered it was snowing.  There is nothing like a snow globe Christmas Eve.  After some breakfast, the waiting began. The waiting was excruciating.  The boys took out their excitement in the form of fighting.  It was all I could do to not cancel Christmas completely and resurrect that Grinch!  But the time finally came to leave the house.  Off to church we went to watch Molly sing one more time. Then we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa McLaughlin's where step-cousins and presents waited!  It was a fun evening of playing, eating and presents!  Everyone was blessed with many presents from their list.

Christmas morning found us up before the sun.  Santa was good to all of us.  There were plenty of presents under the tree to open.  We were blessed (although not always very grateful) to be showered in gifts.  Everything was cleaned up before Grandma Nan and the Eckers arrived for the next round of present opening.  Again we were showered in gifts.  Again we were not always as grateful as we should be.  (it seems the more presents we open the less grateful we become...something to remember for next year).  Then the Bradley family arrived.  The purpose of building a house that could hold a crowd was realized to the fullest.  The 20 family members had a full day together comfortably eating, drinking and being merry!

After all the work, planning and cleaning was complete, I looked at Todd and said "our chaotic Christmases are really a lot of fun.  We are so lucky to be able to spend days surrounded by family and friends."  And he agreed.  We once again can say it was the best Christmas ever.