christmas weekend.

Merry (Day After) Christmas, y'all!  This weekend was so fun!

Once I finally got all the presents wrapped, that is.  Holy smokes, was that an undertaking!  And it's not even like we go overboard on gifts - each of the kids got a pair of new jammies, a book, and one other gift.  But because there are so many people in this house to give gifts to, the presents were totally out of control.  I have spent a lot of time over the course of the last few weeks wondering how moms of larger families than mine handle the chaos of gift-giving.

At least the presents looked cute!  Long live the Buffalo Check.

We woke up Sunday morning to snow, snow, lots of snow.  (Well, lots of snow for Missouri.)  As we were headed out the door to church, a gal was spinning out in her attempts to drive up our hill, so Todd went out to help push her car.  We determined at that point that it would probably be best to stay home from church - granted, it may have just been the fact that people in Missouri have no idea how to drive in the snow, but we didn't like the idea of potentially getting stuck ourselves.

So we had 'house church' by ourselves on Christmas Eve morning, singing worship songs and listening to a sermon together.  Then the kids went outside to play in the snow.

My family arrived in the afternoon and made prime rib for dinner.  After dinner, my mom helped me sew stockings for Rocco and Callista.  I would classify my own sewing skills as Slipshod and Mediocre, but my mom is a pro.  And she's gracious: I never saw her wince even once as she watched me gimp my way through the planning and execution of said stockings.

We let the kids open their jammies, according to our long-standing Christmas Eve tradition.

When they woke up the next morning, they were ready for pictures.  (Except Rocco, who took the first opportunity available to pee all over his new jammies.  So, there was that.  Imagine him in grey-and-white striped thermals.)

And then there was this festive lady in her own new jammies.

After our breakfast of bagels and locks (and discussing with my mom the merits of adding mimosas to the mix next year), the kids got down to business opening their gifts.

Atticus got Laurelai this amazing unicorn headband, which she did not remove all day.

To say there was a lot of activity there for a while is an understatement.  There was also a bit of crying, as Rocco didn't quite get the concept of more than one present: he kept getting mad at me as I tried to hand him fresh presents, as the stupid new boxes kept getting in the way of him enjoying the last present he opened.  Honestly, if only my heart was the same way: content to remain enamored with what I've already been given rather than constantly looking for the next new thing.  Either way, whether his intentions in it were noble or not, it resulted in a lot of growling at me for a bit.

Our living room is not large, and between cramming thirteen people and all the gift shrapnel, it was a bit claustrophobic there for a while.

Callista was an enthusiastic fan of the hat my mom made her.

Then we all sat down for lunch.

After lunch, the menfolk finished assembling the trampoline my mom got for the kids.  I am so in love with this thing.  After only two minutes spent jumping, Finneas was full-on breathless.  I think I'm going to like his blurry little form having an indoor outlet for all the winter wiggles.

And that was our very merry Christmas weekend!  What was the best part of Christmas at your house?