Christmas 2015

This week Christmas (finally) came.  I said "(finally)" because that is how it felt for my kids, but to me, I wonder where this year has gone.  In any case, we started the Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve with dinner at Ben and Becca's house.  Everyone was feeling low key this year so we decided on a fancy dinner of Papa John's pizza.  Honestly I think, at least on the part of the kids, is was one of the best received dinners we have done.

After dinner we played "Beanboozled", which for those of you who don't know, is a Jelly Belly game where there are two flavors that look identical but one will be a good flavor (say peach) and the other will be a gross flavor (say vomit).  The kids enjoyed this game more than the adults but surprising some adults did get into it.  Ben enjoyed making Nana taste as many flavors as possible and turns out Brendon not only likes the smell of skunk, but the taste as well.

Once we were all beaned out, we had the cousin gift exchange.  Carrigan got slippers (actually all three littlest cousins ended up with slippers) and Merrick got an Angry Birds Star Wars video game.  The other highlight was my parents opening our present, which was a blog book I had made with all their blog entries from their time in India.

We finished out the night with a saran wrap ball game for the adults.  No picture of the game itself...it was too intense, but I did remember to take a pic before the festivities began.  Inside the ball we had all kinds of goodies.  When it was your turn you got to try to unravel the ball with tongs in one hand and an oven mitt in the other hand until someone else rolled doubles and then it is their turn.  A few of us (not me of course) are really competitive so things got heated, but it was a blast.  We ended up getting home and to bed late so on Christmas morning everyone slept in.

At about 8am Christmas everyone roused enough to open presents.  Everyone got lots of great presents.  Merrick got Qixels and heelys and C.C. got a baby bed and doll house (among many other things).  The highlight of the morning for me though was not the presents but the interactions.  Both Merrick and Carrigan were so excited about each gift they opened and after they opened it would stop and give hugs to whoever gave them the gift.  It was really sweet to see.

The rest of the the day (and most the the next day for that matter) was all about playing with as many toys as possible.  The kids have had a blast, but my house has looked bombed out in a way it never has before.  I guess that is a sign that we have had a great Christmas.

Last night we capped off the weekend with a trip to Zoolights.  It was freezing, but clear and once we battled the crowds to get in, we had a really fun time.

Now I guess there is only one thing left to say...