I hope you all had a wonderful and peaceful Christmas. We started celebrating on Christmas Eve. First, we finished up our baking then the kids delivered the goodies to our neighbors. This is something we've done since the girls were little. The kids love to do holiday baking and giving these to neighbors, who mostly give nothing in return, helps foster the "giving spirit" in them. It's so cute to see them heading out with the wagon loaded, to make Christmas deliveries. I always time it so that they deliver on Christmas Eve, giving the recipients little or no time to reciprocate. Actually, I'd rather they don't so the children can have the joy of giving, while receiving nothing in return.

Then, that evening, we went to Nicky's parents' house for dinner and gift exchange.
After arriving home, we left cookies and milk out for Santa, then threw oats out into the yard for his reindeer. After that, we exchanged our love gifts then read the real Christmas story from Luke 2. Then the boys went to bed. The girls stayed up and watched a Christmas movie with Nicky, while I got stuff ready for Christmas. When the girls finally went to bed, I was able to finish up the gifts for everyone. Funny enough, at 11:30 pm, the midnight mass from the Vatican is televised. Of course, it's in Latin, but there's a guy translating it into English. When it began, I realized that I've watched it for several years, alone, on Christmas Eve night. It's actually very special and peaceful. A quiet moment for me and God right in the midst of the Christmas excitement. It's especially interesting because I'm not even Catholic, so a lot of the symbolism and activities are lost on me, but it sure is a beautiful service.
Levi loved his Love Gift from Daddy-a turtle shell.

The next morning, Indy woke us up right at 6 am. Argh. I told him to come back at 7, since it wasn't even light yet and I knew there was no way Nicky would get up then. lol So, after he woke Ashton and Levi up, they decided to just watch a movie for an hour. Then, at 7 am, on the dot, he was back. So, we got up and everyone opened their presents. After that, I made breakfast and everyone played with their new stuff. I gave Nicky a little remote control helicopter that's for flying indoors. It's like a mosquito! lol He played with that thing forever and eventually started flying it without crashing it. lol He had fun.

We bought the boys marshmallow shooters, but then I realized I better buy Nicky one,too, or else he'll confiscate one of the boys' shooters, so he got one, too. lol Now, funny enough, my brother sent the boys each one for their gift from his family. So, we ended up with 5 of them! Needless to say, we ended up having an all-out battle between Nicky and all the kids, while I took pictures. They all had a blast!

Later, Nicky's parents came for dinner and to visit. Overall, it was a really nice day.

Nicky left for the woods last night and won't be back til Sunday afternoon. Today we just chilled and I set up my scrapbooking stuff so I can spend a few days doing that. I got a lot of supplies for that, which was great. And tonight I took the kids out to look at Christmas lights. We have 4 houses nearby that go all out and we love to go see them all. It's always a highlight for us.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Hope you all are enjoying this holiday week. Talk to you soon!