Christmas 2010

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. When you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."

Christmas 2010. Another wonderful year. Our family went to mass on Christmas Eve - Ethan sang in the children's choir. The really good thing about that is that it gets us to our church early. Mass started at 4:00, but children in the choir were to be at the church by 3:00. We got a nice long pew where we all got to sit together. By the time mass started, our church was completely filled! It is a big beautiful church. People were standing all around all the way back to the doors and in the hallways by the restrooms. And being there that early, gave 4 of our children a chance to fall asleep and take a nap while the choir sang Christmas carols.

After mass we took our children out to eat. It has become a tradition on Christmas Eve. It is one night when we take all of them to a restaurant - which is a treat. Plus, it is never crowded. This year they wanted to go to Cheeseburger in Paradise - again. That is where we ate last year. I love their food, so I was all for it. It was fun. Our children behaved for the most part and enjoyed their dinners.

When we got home, it was time to quickly make some cookies for Santa, make food for his reindeers, hang up our stockings, and check the internet to see where Santa's sleigh was last seen. When they announced that Santa was in Canada, our children ran around saying they had to hurry and get to bed. They all went to their own beds and most of them fell right to sleep. I think Ethan got up 7 times before 1:00am to check to see if it was morning yet. Jacob decided he was done sleeping in his crib around 1:00am too. I'm not sure how I fell back to sleep, but the next thing I knew, we had 2 boys standing over us with coffee in their hands telling Tom and I it was time to get up. It was 6:00am. We soon had 6 children and 1 tired, confused little boy trying to get us to get out of bed. We asked for a few minutes to enjoy our coffee and then we got up.

Santa was very good to our children this year. He always is. Our children don't really get gifts except on their birthdays and on Christmas, so we feel it's ok to "spoil" them a little. They're good. Plus, it's fun for us and I love seeing them so excited. Which they were.

We went to my sister's home that afternoon and had a wonderful dinner there with her family and our parents. It was a great night. We brought our nephew back home with us and the boys stayed up way too late. But that is what sleepovers are all about right?

So now I am trying to make room in our house for the new items. Getting organized and putting together a lot of donation bags for tomorrow. Tom thinks I am already "nesting" and he loves it. I think it's a little early for that, but maybe with each child it starts a little earlier.

Merry Christmas!