Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did, despite Daddy being in Iraq we had a great Christmas spent with Pop-pop and Mom-mom Adams and aunties and uncle and cousins. I'm a little bit wiped out from the driving and the persistant coughing, but it was worth it to see the kids' and the grandparents' enjoyment! We spent Christmas Eve with sister-in-law V's family and in-laws at a beautiful church service and party afterwards and then back to Pop-pops to snuggle the kids all warm in their beds, recite the Christmas story (glad I learned it when I was a kid) and talk about God's gifts and then I stuffed stockings while mom-mom proceded to stack presents and presents and more presents under the tree. Everyone was shocked and awed to see so many presents! LG wasn't too happy about being woken up, but the other kids weren't waiting any longer. She was fine as soon as she started pulling stuff out of her stocking and soon got into the swing of opening presents. LB was a bit overwhelmed with it all and wanted to play with the guys he got in his stocking, forget opening anything else! I spent the rest of the morning fighting to get stuff out of the industrial strength packaging and then we went over to sister-in-law D's house for delicious Christmas dinner and eggnog and more presents! Then the rest of the evening and the next morning spent on the unpackaging war and load plan for the van. And I thought I wouldn't use my Army skills as a stay-at-home mom... We went for a drive that afternoon out to the Barnegat Lighthouse and then stopped at a little beach for a while just to feel the sand on our feet and draw some sand pictures. Finished loading the van and the next morning we said bye to Pop-pop and Mom-mom and headed over to Aunt V's and Uncle B's to spend some time with the cousins. Had a great time at Storybook Land all lit up for Christmas and the kids wore themselves out playing and finally fell asleep where they crashed. Drove home the next day with a long stop at Ikea in Philly and made it home about 9 pm. Van is still not completely unloaded as I have to make some room in the house for everything! Overall a great trip and I'm glad we got to spend Christmas with family. I do look forward to travelling with John when he gets back though! Enough of the single parent gig... Here's some pics from our trip: