I think we are going to recover from Christmas! :) The toys still have to find homes and older ones need to find new homes, but all in all I'm calling it a success! So what were the O'Connor's up to this holiday season? Here's a run down...Christmas Eve:
We started with church at 4pm with my parents and Joann. We saw many friends and the girls were excellent! They were all looking forward to the end when the lights are turned off (leaving only the white Xmas lights) and Silent Night is sung.After mass we were off to Rick's Aunt Carole's house to spend the evening with his family. If I counted correctly we had 30 people there- 9 of them kids!It's crazy and loud and fun and entertaining and- well- i could go on and on! After dinner the kids got to open presents, then the adults did the white elephant exchange and then we had a round of Christmas carols.
Then it was time to get these girls home to prep for Santa's visit~
New jammies from Grammy and Grandpa~ cookies and chocolate milk for Santa (which i was given a lot of grief over not having shape/gingerbread cookies- sigh).We have our Magic Santa key to let Santa in our house since we don't have a chimney.
We hung our stockings (Maddie adds, "with care")
Then time for 3 tired little girls to head to bed- Maddie tells me- I'm going to have visions of sugarplums in my head mommy. (AWWWW!)
Christmas Day:
Santa visited and left lots of goodies- the girls greeting the morning a tad sleepy- but soon woke up and got into it.
Leapsters for everyone (handheld video games- perfect for car rides!)
After opening Santa presents and stockings we invite everyone over to our house for breakfast. It's become a tradition over these last few years and has been a great way for us to stay at home and relax a bit. Rick and I have the food prep down and Susie always brings a quiche from Marie Calendars.
This year we had my parents, Rick's mom and Aunt Susie and Joann over. We opened more gifts and had a great breakfast (which included mimosas for the adults!)
Emily and JoannAfter breakfast everyone headed out and the girls got some time to enjoy their new treasures.
Christmas afternoon we go down to my parents house (2 blocks away) for dinner and presents from them. My sister and brother-in-law join us too!
The weather this year was not so good- we had rain and very high winds (the power teased us a few times) so we were happy to have a short distance to go.
Mom made an awesome lasagna for dinner complete with Christmas Crackers that Emily helped pass out:
Phyllis and Jim came over with more presents and the girls were amazing through it all! Talk about present overload! LOLThe girls with Aunt Sara and Uncle Rich
We are so grateful for all our family and friends and their generosity this Christmas! We still have a couple more gift exchanges in store (including with Aunt Chelle and Uncle Mike when they return from their holiday travels!) but Christmas is for sure slowing down. They are a couple jammed packed days- but we wouldn't have it any other way!
We hope you had just as special a day and wish you all the best for 2009!
Love,
Rick, Christina, Emily, Ashely and Madeline
XOXOXO
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