Christmas Time

Christmas with children is, well, interesting.

We spent time with our families before Christmas, driving to Ohio to spend some time with Justin’s family and stopping briefly in Bowling Green on our way back. Kate handled the trip well. She did decide she needed to have the door cracked or a night light. The second night at the “Welcome Inn” (where we stayed while visiting his folks) we left the door cracked for Kate. A few minutes later she was screaming. Justin went back to check on her and she was yelling, “You did it! You did it to me!” The door had shut because the furnace kicked on. We used a shoe to prop it after that. Gabby started getting up earlier each day for the entire trip…culminating in a 4:55 wake-up on the day we left to drive home. Yikes.

While we were at Nan and Pop’s in Ohio Kate decided that she had three older siblings. I’ll call them the A triplets—she named them Axil, Axis, and Axin. While we were there, Gabby also started walking several steps at a time.

At Gam and PawPaw’s Kate handed out presents for the whole family. After she handed out the fifth present she said, “I’m going to be so sore tomorrow!” We all laughed so hard. Gabby was so tired during dinner the last night that she fell asleep while eating.

We got home on Christmas Eve at about six-thirty. It was a long drive, but uneventful. We got the girls off to bed so Santa could come.

Christmas morning brought packages and excitement. Kate had two favorites from her presents, an umbrella and a laptop with educational games. She spent a lot of time flitting back and forth between things yesterday and couldn’t seem to settle anywhere. Gabby enjoyed her booster seat, which she used as a stool to climb into the chairs until it was put at the dining room table for her. She also really likes the echo phones we got both of the girls. She wasn’t as impressed with the Cabbage Patch preemie I thought she would adore.

We had a family Christmas dinner of turkey and all the trimmings and read the Christmas story from Kate’s toddler’s Bible that afternoon.

It was not the day I pictured in my mind, but it was a good day.

I hope that you have had a joyous Christmas!