Christmas Chaos

I am settling in to write this blog post, and just thinking about it is exhausting me. As usual, we did some serious running around for the holidays. Michael and I have discussed it and decided that this was our last year. In the future, everyone can come to us. It's just too much to visit so many houses. We love seeing everyone, but the stress overwhelms the joy, and we feel like we hardly see each other.

Festivities started for us on Tuesday the 23rd. My mom, Alex, and Jenna came over for pizza, games and gifts. We played Carcassone, which we fondly call "Pig Risk." In between my turns I was baking a cake for Christmas Eve dinner, making treats for our neighbors, and preparing chicken casserole for 50 for Meals on Wheels. See, you're tired from reading, aren't you?

Wednesday morning (Christmas Eve), I got up around 7 to put my casserole in the oven. At 8:30, I brought it to the church where volunteers packed it into individual meals. I picked up Marlee and Jenna, and we were back at church by 10 to deliver the meals. We got lucky and all of our deliveries were in the same apartment complex. When the last meal was delivered, we headed to my dad's house. Michael was working in the morning, so he met us there. We had lunch and did the present thing with Dad and Wendy. Right before we left, Jessie stopped by with baby Riley, so we finally got to meet the little turkey.

We left Dad's a little after 3 to go to Mass. We got there more than a half hour early but still couldn't get a seat. It turned out to be fine, and we sat on the floor. Marlee's patience was starting to wear thin, so Michael took her out to see all the animals at the live nativity. She was in heaven...we just had to stop her from kissing the animals.

After Mass, we went to my mom's for dinner with some family friends. We had a great time, but we were so tired. By the time we got home around 10, I had been running around for 15 hours.

After the late night, Marlee decided to sleep in on Christmas morning. I walked around the house making a bit of noise so she would wake up :) She was still half-asleep when we walked out to the living room but quickly perked up. She got a play kitchen, play food, a new baby, and lots of other toys and cute clothes. We had breakfast at Waffle House (in our PJs!) so that we could spend some time together, just the three of us. We came home, got ready, then headed up to Nana and Grandpop's to visit for a while. Then we all headed to Aunt Nancy's for Christmas dinner. We got home around 7 and collapsed.

The weekend went by in a flash...it was mostly recovery time! I'll be sure to post some Christmas pictures soon!