Christmas

I don't have tons of time to write, but I'll try recap what has been going on at our house! My parents, Rachel, Jay and Molly came to our house on Tuesday evening and we all enjoyed Godfather's Pizza and opened presents. Jay and Molly returned to CR and every one else stayed. Violet slept in a pack and play in my closet, Calvin slept in a pack and play in Dave's closet. They both seem to be sleeping just fine in there. Violet doesn't seem to be able to climb in and out of it by herself well enough so she had a #2 accident. :( She said she would try again next time. Another thing to note: Our refrigerator picked a bad day to stop working. It died on Christmas Eve. We put a bunch of things outside on the porch since it was below freezing, and packed the rest of the food into the refrigerator/freezer in the garage. *sigh* Everything is working fine the way we have things set up now, but its still annoying. Dave wanted to go out and buy a fridge, but I said no, not this very moment, lets just make do with what we have right now and deal with it next week. The LaMarche crew all arrived Wednesday evening. Sean and April were the first to arrive around 9 pm (they came from the furthest distance and were the first to arrive - I was impressed!). All the kids were really excited to have a place to run around. Violet was extremely excited to see everybody, but she was a little shy and nervous at first. I had just given her a bath prior to everybody's arrival, so she was in her PJs and her hair was wet. Martha was following them on the road so she was next to come in, and Josh and Carrie were just a 1/2 hour behind everybody else. The kids all didn't get to bed until 10:30-ish. So needless to say, getting them all to bed was a struggle! Austin and Renee are in Calvin's room (Renee in his crib, Austin in a tent). Martha is sleeping in Violet's bed, Josh and Carrie have the guest bedroom, and Sean and April and their kids are all in the basement. I think the two older girls, Emily and Alyssa, and sharing the queen air mattress, and the boys are sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor in the basement area, Lynnea is in a pack and play underneath the basement stairs, and Adalynn is in a pack and play next to S&A's room. S&A are in the basement office bedroom sleeping on a big air mattress. Its nice that everybody seems to be very comfortable. The last 2 nights Violet did whine and cry to sleep in her own bed, but she seems happy to sleep in the crib once she gets all settled in there with her special yellow pillow and pink blankie. Calvin is sleeping A LOT. Last night he went to bed at 6 pm and woke up at 8:30 am. The first morning everybody woke up was Christmas morning. I had cinnamon rolls and an egg casserole to bake which we prepared the night before. All the kids opened their stockings after breakfast. The kids watched a couple movies, some kids took naps, etc...and the rest of the day was spent getting Christmas dinner ready. We were all bustling around the kitchen, making turkeys, a ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli, fresh baked pies...there was wayyyyy too much food! We took the turkeys out too early and didn't realize they were undercooked until we went to cut them so we put them back in the oven, decided to forego the entire turkey idea and just eat ham. It was delicious, though!! So we cut the turkeys after dinner once they finished cooking and are saving all the meat for other things. Oh well. The next morning (Friday) we had breakfast burritos and banana bread. We headed off to Lee's gym by 11 am and it turned out to be a GREAT time!! The kids were well behaved, nobody got hurt, and everybody thorougly enjoyed themselves. I even got a chance to jump around and do a few tricks. Don't worry mom, I didn't do anything dangerous and I didn't hurt myself. A few front and back flips, a rudy, and some baranis. :) :) The kids got really worn out and most of the kids took good naps when we got home around 2pm after a hot dog lunch. This evening, we had spaghetti and played lots of games of boggle. Right now we're about to go start a game of scattergories. I'm tired, but its so fun hanging out with everyone! Will write more later. I will mention that Calvin is still my little barnacle (Carrie's term for a leg-clinging child) and Violet is being GREAT. She is sooo happy to have tons of kids to play with and enjoying every minute. She hasn't really been too much trouble other than when we tell her its time to go to bed. Usually its just way past her bedtime and she's overtired. Today after lunch (and after having a cookie), April found her in her bathroom brushing her teeth so she could get the cookie out of her teeth. haha!! She is playing well with everybody, but very sensitive to when someone else is pushing her stroller. There have been a few moments when she would walk up to me very slowly with sad face and say "Mom, I'm sad for my stroller." So, I had to deal with that a few times, but other than that, she's been great. She's learning great lessons in sharing!! I'm already dreading the moment when everybody leaves and she's alone here with nobody to play with. She is going to miss them!