Merry Christmas!

'Twas two days after Christmas and all through the house were toys thrown everywhere (and probably a mouse. Eating the crumbs. From all the Christmas sweets).

We had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas Eve was great too! On Christmas Eve Mat had to work a little, but decided to do it from home, which was nice. The kids and I spent the day playing and getting the house cleaned for us to leave on our trip the day after Christmas. We went to church at 5pm, and all three kids behaved exceptionally well. We even got compliments from the people sitting behind us. A lot of snacks and a little bit of threatening kindly asking them to sit still and they were great! The service ran a little long, so we didn't get home until about 6:40. My plan was to cook spagetti with the homemade spagetti sauce I made, but being so late, that was going to take too long. So we had.....well, I don't even want to tell you. It is from Arlington's favorite restaurant, and for those of you who know her, enough said. Ah well. Next year I will plan to eat something a little quicker on Christmas Eve! But we watched two Christmas movies (short ones) while we ate, and then the kids went to bed. Finley decided she was WAY too excited to go to sleep at her usual 7:30 bedtime and didn't fall asleep until almost 10pm!! Kind of late for Santa to get started on assembling toys in our house.

Christmas morning didn't start too early, which was nice. The kids got up and we all got our showers and got dressed and then went downstairs to see what Santa had brought! The kids were very excited! It was a great Christmas morning. Arlington's #1 gift from Santa this year was a camera. She played with that the whole morning. She also got a doll, a card making kit, and a microphone (ugh). Those were here 4 things from Santa this year. She got a few little things in her stocking (art supplies and what not) as well! Finley's gifts from Santa were a doll that talks and you can pretend to brush its teeth and it has a potty! She loved it. And she also got a Miele washing machine which works just like a real one! This thing is really neat! And Santa got it for free (that will be a story for another blog). Finley also got a few little stocking stuffers. Her favorite was her candy canes, of course! Cainan got Geo Trax for his big gift this year. He (and his sisters) LOVED that thing. It is perfect for him. It has a remote to work it, which he can do easily. He basically ignored all his other presents and played with that! It was AWESOME! Cainan cried all day Christmas last year from being overwhelmed. This year – he had a fantastic morning and a great day. We were so pleased!

So Christmas day dinner went better. We had a nice dinner of ham, potatoes, veggies and pie. We watched “Horton Hears a Who” Finley's movie for this year. Kids went to bed happily at 7:30 and Mat and I relaxed! We got everything packed for our big car trip for Friday and went to bed early.

Friday we got up at 6:30 and were out the door at 8am!! I was so proud of us. We had to make one stop on our way out of town, and we were on our way on the highway by 8:30. We were cruising along and at 11:30 we came to a dead stop on the road. Construction! We went only 2 miles in 1 hour. It was nuts. The kids were so good – we got really lucky. So we decided this was a good time to stop for lunch. After lunch the construction had cleared and that was our last hitch. But the lunch stop and the construction turned out 7 ½ hour drive into a 10 hour drive. The kids were ready to get out when we hit Pennsylvania at 6pm. They were just giddy to get out of the car. We went to my parents house for the first half of the week. We had dinner of my favorite local pizza (Bud's) and then shortly after the kids went to bed. Mat and I got to open our presents from our parents and among other things we got a GPS for our car!!! I was very excited. I have already tried it out!

Today was another busy day. The day started out with having breakfast with some relatives and friends. We had my grandparents, aunt Renee, cousin Alissa, Godparents Chris and Mary Louise all here to visit. It was a nice time. The kids got to open presents from their extended family and that was fun, of course! It was nice to have a chance to visit, since we don't get to see them very often. After they left, the kids had lunch and the babies took their nap and Arlington and her grandparents and us all played several of her new board games. She is at such a fun age. We love doing things with her. Mat and I also started work on my new blog design, so look for that soon! My very talented husband is going to make it so nice!!

After the games, Mat, my dad and Arlington all left for a night in Pittsburgh. They were going to see the “Santas around the World” display, watch the ice skaters and then on to the Penguin Hockey game. My dad is a HUGE hockey fan and holds season tickets. Arlington was really excited. We talked to them at the game and she was stuffing herself with good food and having a great time. My mom and I took the babies out to dinner at another local favorite restaurant of mine (Italian Oven) and then went to look at some elaborate Christmas decorations in town. The babies had a blast. Now they are in bed and we are enjoying a relaxing evening. Mat, Arlington and my dad will be home late, so it is just us ladies!

I want to congratulate our beloved West Virginia University on a win today over UNC!! We were a little worried, but they pulled it off! Yay WVU!

We have a lot of plans this week, and hopefully I will continue to be able to post. I am not sure if my inlaws have wireless internet, so I may not get to post on Tuesday. So, in that case, I am going to break up the Christmas pictures a bit, and I will post some today, and tomorrow or I may never catch up. So enjoy the pictures, and watch for more over the next several days!!