Simply having...

a wonderful Christmas time, however I'm glad it is over. Is there such thing as too much Christmas? My boys may have experienced this, we started our Christmas adventures on Sunday the 23rd with Grandpa Tim's family Christmas. It was great to see everyone and Gabe had a great time opening his presents. He loved everything and still loves to get clothes, he would take everything out of the wrapping and immediately want to open the box or would try to put on the clothes, if only he could keep that excitement for getting clothes through elementary school age, don't worry I'm not holding my breath for that. Everyone also had fun trying out my cousins Nintendo Wii. I thought we may have to call an ambulance for Carl as he overexerted himself with the boxing game but had fun none the less. The 24th we went to church and celebrated Christmas with my immediate family, where Gabe once again had great fun opening his presents. I am enjoying a gift from that Christmas as well in the form of a new, fully-functioning dish washer, ours bit the dust a few months ago and I have been hand washing all the dishes since and using the dishwasher as a glorified drying rack, one never appreciates the convenience of a dishwasher until they have lived with one, then without and then get one back! Ty this whole time really does not care if he has any presents at all, he just loves to chew on his hands. Christmas morning we had our family Christmas just the 4 of us, Gabe loves his new tool set and often helps Daddy fix things around the house now. That noon and afternoon we celebrated with my Mom's side of the family. At this point Gabe is pretty much already on present overload. That night my Aunt and Uncle and boys got a hotel to stay at that had a pool so we took Gabe swimming, he had fun once he got over being scared of the water. He also tried out the sauna with Uncle Pete. The 26th we celebrated with Carl's family and Gabe received his biggest present yet, a tractor that he can ride on, fully motorized (well with the help of a battery) complete with a wagon to pull behind. The boys had 4 days of non-stop Christmas and for Gabe very little to no naps, he was tired, as were his mom and dad. So now that Christmas is over ( and I'm glad just to get back to a normal napping schedule) I look back and realize how blessed we are to have such close knitted families to celebrate the birth of Jesus together.