Christmas

Wow! Is it over already? Today Zachary and I are the only ones home, and the house is soooo quiet. All the decorations are put away, and the house is relatively free of pine needles. I am normally so ready for the tree to disappear the day after Christmas (or sometimes late on Christmas day), but this year the tree was so beautiful and amazing, that it didn't bother me at all to leave it up until New Year's Eve.

We had a big party at our house on Christmas Eve. I swiped the above pictures from my sister-in-law Kristy. I haven't yet uploaded Mark's memory card to see what pictures we have from Christmas. There were 34 people here, and it was really fun. We first fed the kids pizza for dinner, and then banished them all to the basement while the adults had a sit-down delicious prime rib dinner free of interruptions. I loved it. After dinner, the kids did their traditional nativity program, performed musical numbers, and then devoured gingerbread cookies and ice cream. 12 adults and 22 kids makes for a very exicting time. And that's putting it mildly.

Mark and I had 99% of the Christmas prep done before the party started, so when everyone left, we just had to wrap a few presents, fill the stockings and go to bed. We let all the kids sleep in the basement together in the game room. It was fun to listen to them as they tried to fall asleep but couldn't. I think I was more excited for Christmas than they were, though. And so was Mark. He woke me up at 5:30 AM because he couldn't wait any longer.

Maybe later today I will get the pictures from Christmas and the rest of last week uploaded. There are sure to be some excellent ones.