Christmas

I'm back after ten days of crazy Christmas activity. My brother and his family (wife and two boys) arrived from Colorado the Saturday before Christmas and stayed for an entire week, which was so much fun. I had been eagerly anticipating their arrival for many reasons: they are fun people to hang out with, I love having our family all together, their two boys are adorable, and they hadn't met Mr. Mister yet. So this would be the first time all four grandsons (ages 4 months, 10 months, 11 months, and 2 1/2 years) would be together. Their week here proved to be as fun as I had hoped and as crazy as I had expected. We spent nearly the entire week at my parents' house, the central meeting place for the fourteen of us (spouses, fiancés, and children included). We had many long and delicious dinners around their dining room table, shared several bottles of great wine, ventured out to the zoo and the Playhouse in the Park, and spent hours talking, laughing, and reminiscing. It is crazy that three of us have babies and the fourth will be married in May. It just doesn't seem that long ago that we moved to this house, not at all excited to be in a new city and away from our friends in Chicago. Fifteen years later, here we are, all in new places with new people in our lives, and a house full of memories. Hopefully there will be many more memories to come.

A definite highlight was Christmas morning when we managed to have all four grandkids awake and fed at the same time in order to open presents. Mr. Mister got an exersaucer, his next step to being a big boy. He can stand in it, which he loves, and it gives me a break from holding him, which I will love once our days alone at home return (tomorrow).

Another highlight was the weekend visit from Mark's whole family this past weekend. His parents, his sister, and her family arrived Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was great to spend time with them and our house held 7 people much more comfortably than I expected. We made a cornhole set for his parents for Christmas. Mark constructed the boards and I sewed the bean bags with my mom. It was such a fun gift to give and will hopefully spread the joy of cornhole to western Pennsylvania.

As for Mark, Mr. Mister, and me, we kept Christmas simple this year. We were forced to do so financially but found it to be so refreshing, as simplicity typically tends to be. I hope that that can carry over to 2008...that we could continue to live simply in a world that promotes the opposite.

Okay, well our other New Year's resolution is to go to bed at 10:00 on weeknights, so I have 10 minutes to be in bed. We can't break the resolution on the first day of the year! So happy New Year. I'll be back again soon with some thoughts on 2008.