Woo Baby!

Wow! What a month it’s been! Like anyone else preparing for the holidays, it has been hectic around here. This year however was a little worse since we had to have everything wrapped up (literally!) and ready to go about 10 days before Christmas. Because of our conflicting schedules, we don’t get much of a chance to run errands such as gift shopping during the week, and the weekend before Christmas was booked. This was our year to have the boys and they live almost exactly 1,000 miles away. The only way we can afford to get them here is to rent a car for 2 days and drive it. Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? Well it is! LOL! It’s usually a 15 to 16 hour trip each way depending on the traffic and there’s no resting at the halfway point. It’s throwing in the luggage and and a running jump to get in the car when we pick them up and a tuck and roll as we slow down to 30 when we drop them off! Ok, we’re not that bad… but close! We always want to get away from the ex as quickly as possible though. Yikes…she could ruin even Santa’s holiday spirit! LOL!

So we left out of here on the 22nd and rolled in during the wee hours of Christmas Eve. We had left Steven home alone which is nervewracking but he is growing up and not only was the house not trashed, he had even made it to work and was waiting up to see the boys. We had been running late so we didn’t get in until about 3AM and though we should have all been trudging up to bed, we stayed up about another hour just visiting and the boys had fun looking all around the place. We had the new Rudolph Village up and they had fun picking out and looking for all their favorite characters and discussing where which piece really should have gone as opposed to where I had put it and such. They made me laugh because they were usually right! lol. We had new lights up outside and they ran through the house remembering decorations we had, looking for others and getting excited when they found them so it was nice. We are beginning to have a real history together as a family, it’s not them feeling like "Oh we gotta go stay with Dad instead of getting to stay home this year."  That made us feel good.

Oh and we got to meet Blake, the new grandson. SOOOOO sweet!  That was why we were running late. Stephanie and Adam were waiting there to see us and introduce their precious little boy to us. They live about an hour or so from the boys so we can’t ever take the time to see them at their place.  So even though it was a bit chilly, we all stood at the end of the driveway talking and hugging and catching up, taking pictures with the baby and each other and opening presents. Yes, we would rather be cold and uncomfortable than to go inside the ex’s house to visit…not that we are welcome of course. I don’t even go to the front door when we pick the boys up. I just wait by the car and am happy to do so! lol. Anyway, we have pictures to show, but hubby needs to find time to get them touched up and downloaded so they will be in a future post. Oh! And they gave us the perfect gift (even though we had told them not to spend their money on us.) It was a little lighthouse that is solar powered and lights up at night for the garden! I told her that was a wonderful gift because I had wanted something from each kid for the garden at the new house to remind me of all of them! Dennis got me laughing a couple of nights ago when we were admiring it outside because Stephanie was our gift candle child. Every time she had to pick out a gift for someone, it was invariably a candle and I am not a candle person so it kinda drove me nuts. So it was dark outside and the lighthouse was lit up at the top and Dennis said "Well, it’s not a candle but it’s as close as it can get without being one!"  We had a good laugh over that one! But her little family is happy and healthy and knowing that was a gift in itself:)

And speaking of pictures, I FINALLY got my family photo! It was missing the oldest and his family and Stephanie and hers, but getting everyone together is just about a lost cause these days. There was one day during the summer that we had 5 of the 6 kids together and I tried to get a photo then, but we had a neighbor kid take the pictures. He was in a hurry and not familiar with the camera so I just told everyone to smile and had him take 2 shots. When Dennis downloaded the pics though, I’ll tell ya…if there is such a thing as a ‘group mugshot’ this was it!! Wow, I just couldn’t believe it! All the boys looked pissed off and Alysia only had a half smile. It was so bad that when Dennis put it up for wallpaper on the computer I told him to take it down because it just upset me! Sheesh!

But this time around, Dennis got a tripod for Christmas! *evil giggle* I made everyone sit in front of the tree and told them that we would sit there until I got a picture I liked…and that meant a smile on every face. It was kinda funny because after the first shot (which I didn’t like) I made them sit there and reminded them they would remain until they all smiled at which point they started fussing. But I cut them all off telling them Dennis had pressed the button and the flash was going off in a second. They all shut up, looked at the camera and GRINNED! YES! I got my picture! Yay! It came out so nice I do believe it may be next year’s Christmas card!

It was an awesome day. Everyone loved everything they got, or at least I think so. There was wrapping paper EVERYWHERE and lots of excitement over what they all got. It was noisy and boisterous and fun! As usual the kids got a kick out of seeing who the gifts were from because I write things like "Frosty" and all the reindeer names and every Christmas character I can think of! Right down to "The Haynes Sisters" from White Christmas and "Dudley" from The Bishop’s Wife! (I know, crazy, but it’s fun! lol) The only gift I’m not sure of was the set of pots and pans we got for Alysia. She needed them (I think) but she hasn’t mentioned that they have used them or anything. I hope she wasn’t disappointed by the gift. Maybe that was too practical? Oh well, we did have a wonderful time that day, even if dinner didn’t get put on the table until about 8! Oops! lol. But I had fed everyone homemade waffles and bacon (not homemade! lol) at about 1 to hold them over so it was all good.  Plus they were all playing a new baseball video game Dennis got. I thought it would be boring to the kids since they are used to all those fighting games, but this one had everyone jumping up and yelling and laughing! It was music to my ears and had me grinning in the kitchen as I prepared dinner. It really got the place hopping! LOL!

The rest of the week was quieter since Alysia and Al headed out and Steven and I went back to work, but Dennis kept the boys busy trying out the new toys and the metal detector we got them for our trips to the beach next year. They like helping Dad so he also had them help get rid of one more eyesore on the property that we needed to before we put the house up for sale. It was the rotting unusable clubhouse the previous owner had built. The boys had fun helping Dad tear it down and Dennis was even able to salvage some planks to repair the side steps with. It makes the yard look so much bigger now. We have before, during and after pictures of that too:) I also spent Wednesday and Thursday making sleep pants for the boys since I had run out of time before Christmas. Louis didn’t really care either way about them and reluctantly stood while I measured him and tried them on him, but Alex, well, Mom was using the sewing machine (ANY gadget fascinates him! lol) and producing perfectly fitted pants just for him. He is a size 12 in kids with a leg length of a size 6! He is a stocky little thing! lol. All his jeans are about 6 inches too long which I didn’t realize until too late or I would have shortened them all for him. Oh well, now I know why he prefers shorts so much! Anyway he was tickled pink to have pants fit so comfortably and didn’t want to take them off to travel!  I only hope they survive, the ex is notorious for throwing their things out and ripping up clothes they leave around. *sigh* But I have their measurements now and will make some things for the summer though.

So on the Saturday following Christmas, we once again rented a car and made the 2 day trip to drop them off. Two trips from hell for only a 6 day visit! It was worth it though. I love the chaos of having as many kids home as possible and this year we had 4 of the kids plus Alysia’s honey as well. He fits right in with the family and it was wonderful to have him here as well. They had gone to his family’s the Friday before for a big family gathering and stayed until Christmas morning then they headed over here for 2 days then back home for their own small Christmas. Al had us chuckling because he wouldn’t let Alysia open her 2 presents from him because she kept talking about being in front of a fire and being cozy to open gifts. So she got to open one here in front of the fire then the second one after they got back to their apartment. (Hm, that might be why she didn’t stay the week! LOL!)

For New Year’s though, we were on the road.  At the stroke of midnight, we were still three hours from home and driving through our third torrential downpour of the trip! Oh well. It’s over and we both had to go right back to work the next day and the tree and decorations just had to wait til we could catch our breath despite the fact that the tree was dead and brittle and sagging so much that the ornaments were falling off! And then we were obligated to go to a friend’s birthday party on Jan 6th, which interrupted the clean up yet again. But we made progress yesterday, the tree is out, about half the decorations are boxed up and I am hoping to really make strides today in getting it all done.

Of course there is no rest for the weary, once we get the clean up finished with, it is only 5 months until we hope to get the house as fixed up as possible and on the market. We can’t fix everything but we have two bathrooms to renovate (ourselves!) and a whole lot of painting and sewing and about a million minor repairs to do too. I told Dennis we are going to pull into the new place on one tire and that one’s gonna be flat! LOL!

So this concludes "What I Did for My Christmas Vacation" update! Hope you all had as much fun as we did! Pictures will follow later…and we got LOTS of them so be warned! LOL!