Dh and I did not get to bed until 1 am and the darling children woke us by yelling Merry Christmas at 6 am. Big groan from dh and whimpering from me. Dh and I took 2 naps, kids played, we ate informally ---taco and ranch dips, subs, and pizza as well as sugar cookies, puppy chow, chocolate pound cake...It has been a relaxing day, but it does feel strange not seeing extended family today. I am used to this day being full of hustle and bustle, and it is so low key, that I feel out of sorts.....hmmm....I am going to have to think about this.

Hi Terri:
Ugh I feel your pain LOL.
I went to bed at 1am and woke at 6am myself. I wanted to shower and get breakfast started early.
I have napped on and off all day. My younger dd seems to have a cold so she has been napping on and off all day too.
It was a nice day, we opened gifts, the girls played and have stayed in their pjs all day, we had a nice family breakfast, then dh and I went and spent time alone (he works tonight) while my brother watched the girls, later the girls and I watched Christmas movies, and now tonight is just more of the same, playing with toys, eating and relaxing.
We don't go to anyone's house on Christmas Day but we do usually have my parents stay with us. I did miss that this year, hopefully next year they will be here.

~Melissa~ Wife to my hero, Mother to Skylar and Summer.
Expecting our first son Decklin Vai on Dec 28th!

Organ donation has touched our lives.
www.saveskylar.com
http://saveskylarpictures.blogspot.com/
http://decklin-vai.blogspot.com/

My 12 year old made me a cabinet. It's nearly five ft tall, and it pulls out from the wall to gain access to things. I will have to find a way to post a picture! It's lovely. Hubby used to be a cabinetmaker, so he walked DS through how to do it, but the design and wood choices were all his own.

I also got a great new camera. I LOVE it. And the boys are so enjoying their day. The oldest son is really loving Christmas for what it really is (I love when they get to that point,) the middle child was so excited about his gift to me, he forgot about himself, and the youngest son, well, he is happy with a box, so he has been giggly all day. My daughter in VA and daughter here both loved their gifts, and all in all, it has been a wonderful season.

We have had a wonderful time together, all of us. And we are going to make it a practice to have MORE family time more often.

The only part of the day I didn't like was the 6 am wake up. Ugh. And DH said "oh they will sleep in, they are so tired." HA! Was he dreaming or WHAT?

Our company is gone. We had a wonderful time. We're tired, but happy & relaxed. I'll post more later.

Annika

I got to sleep til ei - - -ght. Ha ha haha ha.

At our house, Santa presents are unwrapped so the kids will usually play with those for a few minutes before they wake us. Santa only brings two or three things, so usually we don't get to sleep in because of these gifts. This year, however, Santa gave each kid a Webkin. Since they already own Webkins and access to that website is approved for them, they were able to log in and play with them for a while before they decided to wake us. We probably got an extra hour because of it!

We stayed home . . . as usual . . . and we really like this system :-) MIL and BIL joined us for dinner and played with the kids while I cooked and Dh tried to nap off a bought of Bronchitis.

I must have been a very good girl OR the incessant whining about my dying handmixer finally got to my husband because I got the Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas this year. Yeah me!!! I'd love to go play with it right now, but I have to go upstairs and clean the bedrooms before my mom arrives from WV tonight. I only cleaned downstairs for MIL and BIL :-)

Valerie

I had a busy but a wonderful Christmas. The kids woke us at 7:20am ( not too early). We enjoyed our morning then it was time to put the house in order and cook Christmas dinner. We had 10 people for dinner, just family. My family stayed until 7:30pm and I was tired by then. My poor dh had to go to work today. I am enjoying a quiet day at home today.

Korey

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year. As you know my Grandma is in a rehab center and so we decided to take Christmas TO her. The staff let us use their lunch room which is beautiful and big and we had our traditional Christmas Eve, pizza, coke and presents. After opening all the gifts we went outside and the boys (even my hubby) played on the hills with the new skateboard and scooter.

Christmas day I leisurely cooked:

Blue Cheese Pork Chops
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Crescent rolls
Apple Pie

(Did you notice I forgot veggies? EEK)

My in laws came over for dessert and presents and then we had our dinner after they left. I took a plate to Grandma, we came home and all watched Mission Impossible 3. (GREAT movie)

I blogged pictures: http://homeschoolblogger.com/MamaMary/258878/Mary%26%23039%3Bs+CHRISTmas+Week+in+Review%21.html

I still have "Christmas Jet Lag" or maybe "Christmas Cooking & Bustle Lag" would be more appropriate. I woke up at 1 pm today and did nothing but watched DVDs, drink coffee, and eat cheesecake and lazanya for 3 hours and I'm still exhausted LOL!

Dh and I got to bed around 3:30/4:00 a.m. Christmas Eve. (Note to self, when you buy Christmas presents early wrap them right away rather than waiting until the last possible minute.) Ds woke up at 6:45 a.m. and woke us up because Santa Claus had magically transformed his Gameboy into a Nintendo DS, just like he'd asked him too. (Dh's idea that he told me about only 2 days ago.) Ds was pretty good and let us sleep in till 10 (with hourly checks to see if we were awake of course ;-)

We opened presents (I got money to make the Civil War era Day dress that I've been dying to make!) and naturally, ran late getting the last bit of cooking done. My Mrs. Claus dress turned out a bit too big but dh loved it. He thought it was funny that I loved looking like an 18th Century homemaker - hair in a bun, white bonnet, white underskirt, knickers, and all :-)

We got to the movie theatre by 2:00 to drop off Christmas dinner for the employees and it was PACKED. Dh wasn't supposed to work that day (a miracle) but he and I felt that morally, he was obligated to go in. Management was only expected 600 people the whole day and by 2 they'd already had 2,000 with more pouring in each minute. By the end of the day the head count was 7,000+.

So, we made a quick stop at dh's youngest brother's house (were told about this only a few days ago) and left by 5:00. Dh got to work by 7:00. A friend of ours stopped by and I got calls from one of my sisters and my dad.

I'm exhausted, the living room looks like a wrapping paper factory exploded, ds has become a videogame Borg, and I've got far more lazanya in my fridge than anyone could eat with no space in the freezer because it's still packed with Thanksgiving dinners. It was a great Christmas :-)

Sorry to all that have been sick over the holidays. ((hugs and cold medicine.))

~Need More CoffeeHeidi