Family Frenzy

Christmas 2010 was one of those special ones where Aunt Karen's family joined us for the holiday. As far as Mam and Smunch are concerned, that means SPENCER! Each day, Mam would ask how many days were left until Christmas. As soon as I told her, she asked, "How many days until Spencer??"

I sent Smunch to baseball camp for most of that first week that they were out of school. It served dual purposes. He was out of the house, so he couldn't fight with hs sister and he has evaluations for spring baseball on January 8th, so I figured he could brush a little rust off while he was there. Mam was supposed to have three days of cooking camp, but only made it to one after coming down with a fever.

No sooner was baseball camp over than SPENCER! arrived with his mom, dad and new baby brother, Lucas. And the holiday free-for-all began. I'd forgotten just how nuts things are with a baby around. There's not a single unusual or bad thing about Lucas, but gosh, he's a BABY! He has to eat and sleep and have his diapers changed. He gave me a nice perspective on my older children at least.

For the most part, my sister and her family stayed with our parents, but the whole crew stayed over at our house on Christmas Eve to wait for Santa. We had a low key dinner with spiral-cut ham, fresh, homemade bran rolls, sweet potatoes and veggies...with cookies for dessert, of course. The kids joined Grandpa on the sofa for The Night Before Christmas before bedtime.Each kid picked out a cookie for Santa and they left a carrot for the reindeer...a really big carrot.All the kids went to bed and my sister and parents unloaded their cars of all the presents they had brought. Soon, the living room was awash in gifts.Fortunately, we arranged for the adults to open their presents that evening or I'm afraid Santa would have had a hard time finding a place for those giant Nerf guns.