Our Revolving Door

Our house has been like a revolving door all week. It all started last Monday when Aunt Betsy got into town. We had tons of fun with her all week. Then, Kaki and Grandad joined us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We started our night with our traditional Christmas eve meal...chili. Then, it was time to get dressed and ready for church. We even managed to get some pictures before we left. The best was the first picture of the night...TJ was trying to get one of Trip and Mady standing in front of the Christmas tree, but of course, Mady didn't want to stand still, so Trip grabbed her when she tried to run away and they both fell down, smushing presents under the tree! It was actually all pretty funny, especially since no presents got broken. The worship service at church was one of the best we've been too and they actually had a nursery open, so we didn't have to wrestle the kids the whole time. While they were in the service with us, Mady "sang" along with all the songs. She was so precious. After we got home, we let Trip chose a Christmas movie; he chose How the Grinch Stole Christmas (a classic). We all had some treats while we watched and then it was off to bed for he and Mady. We were all shocked that Trip appeared to go right to bed. He never came out of his room and there were not the typical loud, unidentifiable noises from his room that we usually hear after he goes to bed. Now the fun really began. We opened up some wine and started in on the toy assembly for the gifts from Santa. My parents stayed up with us until about 11 pm. They get joy out of watching us suffer through this process now, just like they did when Graham and I were kids. Betsy was a huge help; she, TJ and I stayed up until about 1:30 a.m. putting everything together. We got about 6 hours of sleep, because Trip was up and ready to go by 7:30. Not too bad, but I was still exhausted. We made poor Trip wait upstairs until we were all up and ready to head down because we all wanted to see his reaction. He only had to wait about 10 minutes, but it was an eternity to him. The first thing he noticed was his new big boy bike. Once he got all the way downstairs he found his race track and he knew exactly what to do to get the cars to go and he never stopped again, except to open other presents. Mady came down almost an hour later and had the sweetest look on her face when she saw her kitchen and princess castle. It was such a joy to watch them all morning as they played with all of their new things. The rest of the day we wall just hung out and the kids played.

Then, our revolving door swung around again the next morning, as Pitty and Grumpa arrived from Wisconsin. They left Wisconsin around 1 pm Christmas day and started down this way. They got to a hotel in Peachtree City around 4:30 a.m. and made it to our house by 10 a.m. WOW! They were only able to stay a few hours, as they were on their way to the beach house in Naples. We had fun opening presents with them and eating some pizza. The best part was giving Trip and Mady rides in the new, huge beach tote we got them for the beach house. Is it normal to run around the house with your child in a tote bag? Well...the kids loved it! The games we think of and the ones they enjoy always make me laugh. One day they will look at these pictures and wonder what we were thinking.

Our revolving door swung around again Sunday morning, for Christmas 2009 round 3. My parents returned along with Graham, Katie, Nicholas and sweet baby Nolan. We had quite a house-full. It was finally time for an official Christmas dinner. Yummy! And, more presents, of course! Now, we have Nicholas staying with us for a few days, so Mommy and Nolan can have a little alone time while Graham goes back to work.

It has been so wonderful spending all of this time with our families this holiday season. I will be sad when our door stops swinging so much!