Merry Christmas Everyone!

Prince enjoys the finer points of Christmas. He is the first to ask if we can decorate for Christmas and though didn't show his disappointment over my minimal decorating asked if next year we could please put up lights in every room. This year he threw himself into wrapping presents. Since I was still busily FINISHING presents, I handed him a roll of paper, tape and scissors and let him loose.

With a LOT of help from his sister (and a little, often too late, rescuing from mom) he wrapped up thoughtfully chosen gifts for the family. He didn't pick anything EASY to wrap and considering all his help(!) I was amazed at how well he did. (That bundle on the sewing machine is my present for the boys which you will find in collages below or here. Yes, a day before Christmas, it was still in that VERY unfinished state).

While Dad was working his 84th overtime in three weeks, I took time out from my frantic race to finish by Christmas Morning and the kids and I attended a Christmas Eve gathering with his family.

We got home late and I carried three sleeping children into the house. Dad eventually came home exhausted and I carried him to bed as well. Then I burned three gallons of midnight oil and finished just before Santa gave up and flew past our house.

Here we are enjoying Santa's trail and our stockings (above) and their contents (below).

We enjoyed a hearty breakfast of berry strudel ~ the only decent recipe I have which calls for only one egg. For a family who says "We are almost out of eggs; we only have 2 dozen left" that shows how badly we were scraping the bottom of the barrel on organization this year. I answered my brother's annual phone call. He has made a special treat every year since he was 12. And every year I have to tell him the recipe. Maybe he does it just so we will miss him and his delectable Eggnog German Pancakes. We miss you anyway.

After breakfast we dove into our tree gifts. The boys major present is the map quilt in the middle. Check out my other blog for detailed pictures. (I'll post soon along with all my other December creativity).

I had to post an entire collage of Pretty Girl with her presents because she was in LOVE with them. She sat in the carseat all morning until it started unwrapping itself. The gorgeous purple afgan (and a matching sweater) are from my Aunt Rose. I wish she was a blogger so she could see how Pretty Girl snuggled with it all morning. She LOVES her blanket. And thankfully she was also pleased with her picnic basket of felt food.
Pretty girl really got the concept of gifts and unwrapping which surprised me. It was fun to watch her and you can hear the boys in the background.



Stay tuned for the boys' favorite gift. It deserves a post all it's own.