Christmas

I did not take a single picture on Christmas morning. Or Christmas Eve. Or the day after Christmas, for that matter. I just didn't feel like it. I did shoot some video of Jack pulling the Wii controller out of the bottom of his stocking, but no photos.

For a while, I felt a bit like I was shirking some sort of parental responsibility for not taking any photos of Ben's first Christmas, but I don't think he cared. And I'm not sure he ever will. I do have some pictures of him from the day before Christmas Eve, so we'll call it good.

I will admit that I would have made the effort to take out the camera and snap a picture of them in their coordinating pajamas had they not BOTH wet through them. I actually might try and take one tomorrow just for posterity's sake.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Aunt Kathy's house to celebrate with my mom's side of the family and on Christmas day (after some family time and Kyle's amazing crunchy french toast) we went to my mom's house to celebrate with them. On the day after Christmas, we went to Ohio to celebrate with my dad's side of the family. By that time, Jack had been without a nap for three days in a row and anyone around him could tell. I think he through a major temper tantrum within our first 10 minutes there.

On the 28th, we celebrated with Kyle's family and starting the 30th, his dad's side of the family came to the lodge at camp and will be here until January 2.

The boys both received some great gifts, and we are literally overwhelmed with what to do with all of the toys in our house. It's ridiculous. Our house feels so much smaller and for the first time EVER I wondered if we should think about buying a new house. I love our house and pictured us being here for the long haul, but seriously . . . that's how many toys we brought home. And as the boys get older, they're just going to have more and more stuff. Enough to make me want to buy a bigger house. Only in America . . .

Last year, we were able to shove them all in a closet and bring them out one at a time over the course of a few months. But this year Jack remembers each and every thing he opened, so that's not going to happen. At the beginning of this week, I was having panic attacks over the number of tiny pieces and boxes laying all over our house. I still kind of am.

So, that was our Christmas in a nutshell. Happy New Year!