Christmas, etc

Merry late Christmas to everyone! So sorry that we are so behind in keeping up the blog. I have all kinds of freetime this time of the year... You'll notice this same delay last year at this time, too. Sorry!!

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We started the Christmas celebration at Suzanne's parents house. The living room floor was literally covered with presents and kids so that not a scrap of carpet could be seen. It was a crazy few minutes of gift-opening excitement for the kiddos, as you can imagine. The cousins all got a mini air hockey table to share, but it turned out to be Andrew's personal favorite. Unless you wanted to play him, you didn't get to play!

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Miss Molly, Shannon's youngest, got her own pink potty chair. She was so excited, she gave it it's first deposit right there in the middle of the living room and everyone. What a funny scene... and a picture I'm sure she will see again in her wedding slide show - if that's still the thing in a few years.

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Christmas Eve Mass was really special since it was being said for our family's intentions. At St. Agnes, they try to let the ones who requested the Mass intention be the ones who take up the gifts. So, Grandma and Papa carried the important stuff, and the older grandkids followed them up to give the gifts to Father. Patrick didn't make it, since he fell asleep in the pew. Sitting up. I was wondering why they all seemed so good...
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That night, we braved sleet and snow to head back to Scott's parents. Santa had arrived bright and early, which was great since Joe was up at 5am. Luckily, crafty grandparents kept the boys busy and entertained upstairs for two hours until the rest of the house (aka Andrew) was awake. Now that's talent.

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Patrick's little doggie, Jim, got quite a new wardrobe from Santa.

We wanted to give our boys the opportunity to experience the joy of giving, too, so we took each of them individually to the dollar store to pick out gifts for each other. Usually, they chose gifts they would really like themselves, eg, Luke bought Patrick a paint set. When Luke gave the wrapped gift to his twin, he exclaimed, "Pat, I hope you like it!" When Patrick opened it, he just said, "I don't like it." Poor Luke was dejected! We had an impromptu discussion on being gracious and polite.

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Joe and Patrick also picked out gifts for Grammie. Joe was walking by the "home goods" aisle and saw a package with a picture of a woman with her head in a microfiber head wrap. Not too flattering, but Joe instantly though of Grammie, so we got it. God bless Grammie for being so excited to receive that gift! Patrick bought her a lovely ceramic cross "for her new kitchen" he said (it has recently been renovated) It was awfully thoughtful of him. As for Granddad, one of the boys thought the $1 bag of off-brand Chex mix would be great for him, and another got him gummy worms. Lucky Granddad!

A random picture of Andrew 'playing' MarioKart Wii with Joseph. He loves imitating his brothers! Andrew is sitting on my lap now, looking at the picture and saying, "Baby, Joe Joe. Baby, Joe Joe"