Christmas Recap

What a whirlwind of 3 days we just had....

December 23rd - we got ourselves ready for our family Christmas.  Santa visits our home the night of December 23 into the 24th.  Reason for this is that we do not wake up in our own home on Christmas morning.  When we moved to Marion the kids (aged 3 & 2 - the newborn did not care) were worried that Santa would not visit them since they were not at their own home.  So Tony & I decided that we would 'talk' to him and request a visit while he is out on the other side of the world (it was December 24 somewhere) and make a special visit to our kids.  Six years later he still visits us and it is one of the most wonderful thing about our Christmas.

December 24 - we drove up to Cleveland to visit my parents and my Dad's family.  We had a lovely surprise when we pulled in the drive and right behind us was my brother, his wife & kids.  My kids were so excited to see their cousins - another blessing of the season - having cousins.   There were a few hiccups on Christmas Eve.  First one was that my Aunt & Uncle did not come up to Cleveland.  Normally we have dinner with them and spend the evening hanging out sometimes just talking, sometimes playing game.  Second - we did our best to try to go to Mass.  Being the only regularly practicing Catholics in our family (most are C & Er's as my sweet hubby calls them) we usually do not get to Mass on Christmas.  Well since my Aunt & Uncle were not going to be in town we figured we would go to Mass and then to dinner.  We arrived at the church and it was packed to the rafters (full of C & Er's) so we made the decision to just have dinner and headed back to my parents house.  We ended up not having dinner (reason is that since my Aunt & Uncle were not going to be there my Mom decided not to make a dinner - just snack on leftovers from lunch).  So Tony & I decided to go and see the 'new' Harry Potter movie while the kids stayed with my parents.   The movie was good - followed the book fairly closely.  Only bad thing was we sat near smokers and they stunk.

December 25 - we woke up a bit late on Christmas morning.  Kids opened up gifts from my parents.  We then headed out to my Grandmother's house.  Grandma is 88 years old and this is the first year she did not do all the cooking.  My mom did the cooking and it went well.    Kids were able to play with their cousins here also - so they were happy.  After the visit with my Grandma we headed to Tony's family Christmas gathering at his brother's house. 

December 26 - headed home!!!  The kids were able to play with their new booty!  Glad the gatherings are done and looking forward to the new year ahead.