72 Hours of A Christmas Story

I'm convinced if Jesus had in laws to celebrate with, he would have waited another full day to magically emerge from that tomb to give his family a little more time to get everywhere.

When did Christmas get so stressful, people? NY to NJ back to NY again. The kids had a great holiday and the parents worked their asses off to make it happen. And my goodness, I was in bed by 8 p.m. last night. I would have gone to bed at 7:30, but I had to wait to put the kids down first!

We spent Friday night with my mom in New Jersey, where the kids had Christmas, Round 1 with grandma. Which was awesome, because we remembered to pack everything but toys for them. So their gifts were amazing since they were both new and the only things they had to play with for a full 24 hours. On Friday we spent the day in PJ's before heading over to my aunt's house for the Christmas Eve festivities. 

{ this may be the only year that I'm cooler than Santa... }

Santa came and Reese and Ryan were really excited to see him. They greeted him warmly and sat on his lap :) Seriously though, they eventually came around. For Reese it took two gifts. For Ryan it took the realization that Santa was wearing glasses (he loves glasses. Glasses and hats.)

Reese became a gift opening expert by the time the night was through. And she was so distracted by the boxes and the wrapping paper and the noise, that several times she stood unassisted or took steps. Since then she's been standing on her own quite a bit, and looking at me proudly as she does! Ryan was content to let Reese open his gifts too. As long as he got the toys inside them when she was done.

We spent the night at my aunt's house. It was so nice to catch up with her and my cousins after the kids went to bed and everyone else left. Not that Christmas wasn't awesome too. But sometimes it's nice to just unwind and catch up. We woke up to an amazing breakfast of pancakes (the kids ate two whole pancakes each!) and hit the road.

{ my little red nosed reindeer }

We got home shortly after 1 p.m. to do Christmas, Round 3 with Joe's parents. Halfway through their gift opening, the kids had a small meltdown that was cured by bottles. And then we resumed operation open as many things as possible. Among the favorites were a tooth brush, an alligator and Chuck the truck.

After the gift opening was completed the kids took a well deserved nap and I set about unpacking from our trip and putting all of their new toys away. The kids slept for over two hours, which was almost enough time for me to get everything done. Before leaving for New Jersey, I made a pot of sauce and when the kids woke up I threw it on the stove and cooked up some ravioli. Christmas dinner was a huge hit among two tiny humans. 

{ this little guy at NINE ravioli and one meatball! }

{ and junior miss consumed at least seven, by my count }

After dinner we had baths with our new bath toys and Mr. Bubble. The kids were pretty confused by the bubbles at first, but decided that they weren't so bad after a bit. Christmas Mass was at 7:30 p.m. so we put on our Sunday best and headed back out the door. 

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{ the only picture I got of the kids in their holiday outfits in front of the tree :( }

{ with her new lovey }

Ryan did great in church, but Puffle was not happy to be held for an hour. She did a lot of walking up and down our pew and eventually she and I both ended up walking laps in the back of the church. For 11.5 months old, I think they did phenomenal. No major meltdowns, just a whole lot of squirming. We finally got home around 9 p.m. and all went to bed shortly thereafter. 

I think we're all still recovering from the weekend. What a Christmas.