Christmas Eve with the Cousins

Alternate Title: The Last Day with Above Zero Temps for the Foreseeable Future

Christmas Eve morning, we got up bright and early to get the girls ready to go out with Auntie to her annual high school friends brunch. Bugs goes every year and Q decided to join this year as well. They had the best time with Auntie and her friends and enjoyed Auntie's looser breakfast rules (like hot chocolate). Dec fully enjoyed having Mike and my undivided attention for a while before church.

We met the girls and Auntie at church - as well as the rest of the cousins. Dec and Otto could barely contain themselves, hugging each other and then walking into the sanctuary hand-in-hand, leaving all the rest of us behind. By the time we got settled, we took up the entire sidewall pew AND all six kids had decided to sit by each other. We made it about 10 minutes before Anna and Liv took them all to the nursery. They were simply too excited to see each other to be quiet. After the service, they ran around the fellowship hall on Christmas cookie and lemonade highs. They played chase, kicked balls, rolled on big balls, and watched Hux run into a table and give himself a black eye.

Mama tried but nap was pretty much a bust. It's hard to control the excitement level on Christmas Eve. So we threw in the towel and bundled up while the weather was still "warm" (again, relatively speaking) to meet Anna and Otto for Christmas Eve sledding. It's another one of our very favorite traditions and we were so glad the weather cooperated enough this year.

We laughed, avoided running into trees, continued to haul children up the hill, froze our cheeks, and relished our time together. We stayed out for maybe 25 minutes before the kids got cold, and then we headed over to B's house for the annual Johnson family party. There were 26 of us there this year and we ate, drank, and were very very merry! The kids played together so well and at one point, we realized they were all down in the basement with no adult supervision. And doing just fine. (Note: not Milo. He's good, but at not quite a year, we do supervise him)

We stayed until 8:30 or so and then headed back to Gma and Gpa's to put out cookies, write a note to Santa, read The Night Before Christmas, and settle our brains for a long winter's nap.