Christmas

As I had mentioned before sleeping upstairs with the rest of the family wasn't such a great idea, so I went back to sleeping on the couch downstairs.  Now, I'm not sure what it is but when I'm pregnant I love to sleep on couches that are the smallest, hardest, most uncomfortable couches ever!  Normally I wouldn't have chosen to sleep on this couch but rather on the mattress with my family, but in this particular situation I found it very comfortable.  Lucy wandered downstairs rather early Christmas morning, which was good in a way.  That gave me a time to get breakfast started before the chaos of everybody being awake happened.

I ended up making this breakfast casserole, because I figured it made a lot of food, and I actually like breakfast casseroles a lot!  I made some mini-quiche for my Mom too because I didn't think that she was going to like the casserole... taking care of the savory side of breakfast.  Dad made his famous Chef Pierre pancakes (inside joke within our family) to take care of the sweet part of it.  Everything went really well!  There was plenty of food to go around and it seemed like everybody really liked all the food that was provided.  (I will provide the recipes to the casseroles and mini-quiches in a later post).

After we got everything cleaned up and everybody was fed Mom wanted to do the Grandkids presents.  They didn't go over the top, which is something I'm grateful for.  And the gifts that they did give were very thoughtful, in my opinion.  I thought that my kids were going to jump out of their skin when they saw what they had gotten!  My Mom, the crafty lady that she is, made Dude a quilt of all the words he knew how to spell last year.  It was adorable.  And on the other side it had Dinosaur Train fabric and the design that she had done with it matched a mini-blanket she made just for Hippo... also having dinosaur train fabric on it.  Dude about lost it.  He was jumping up and down and just wanted to sit and look at the words on his quilt.  He also got him the dinosaurs A-Z book, but he was honestly more interested in the quilt!  Lucy got a really nice quilt that Mom made, and she so got a mini dinosaur train quilt for some of her pals.  :)  Again, her big quilt matched her little one... super cute.  She also got a book that she was rather excited about as well.  :)  Well played Mom.  Well played.  The Young's got some beyblade toys and an arena in which to battle and they thought that was just the coolest thing.  So, for a little while both families kids were occupied and all was quietish.  :)

Dude inspecting Hippo's quilt

Got him mid-jump in the air as he was so excited!

Showing off his book

Lucy was thrilled that she had dinosaur train on her mini quilt too

The back of Dudes' quilt with all his words

He already got Hippo tucked in with his new blanket

Lucy was really into reading her book she got!

The mini-quilt she got

She loved it!  If you can see the detail of how Mom sewed flowers into it, it's really amazing

The big quilt that Mom made for her... I love it!

The other side of Dude's quilt

Momma reading Dude one of the books

Papa reading Lucy the other one!  Notice the fun puzzle stitching Mom quilted in

After that the day was already getting towards nap time so Dad seeing that I was dragging quite a bit offered to take the Young boys out adventuring so that the house could be quiet for sleeping.  Bless his heart.  That would've been enough of a Christmas present for me!  That meant that the kids actually got naps/down time in and I got the most epic nap I could've hoped for.  The few hour nap that I got was the best sleep I had gotten all weekend and it really made a difference.  When I woke up I felt refreshed and 100% better.  It's surprising what a little bit of quality sleep will do for you!

By that time Dale and Marcella had gotten to the house along with Grandma and Grandpa Miller so it was quite the full house.  Mom and Dad were busy in the kitchen making Moo Goo Gai Pan, which is a favorite in the house.  I couldnt' believe how much of it they made!  But I suppose when you're feeding about 18 people you have to make a lot of food!  It was delicious and I was stuffed by the end of it.  After Christmas cookies and goodies had been consumed and things were cleaned up we got the kids, and our stuff ready to go.  It was fun being around them for a few days but it was definitely time to head home.

Jon and his wife Megan all tuckered out after Christmas dinner. I couldn't blame them.

I also knew that we were going to be back in town in a few days so I didn't feel to badly taking off.  We had a great Christmas just hanging out with family, which is what I think it should be.  There wasn't any big show or anything like that... it was just what it needed to be.  :)  So, Merry Christmas everybody!

JVG