surviving christmas

Christmas was at our house this year, which I was very excited about. I always LOVE company! Aunt Sarah and Uncle Colin came with the kids on Saturday and Grandma and Papa were right behind arriving Sunday night. I know it was a long drive for everyone, which makes me more grateful that they could come! Unfortunately we spent most of the time indoors thanks to the Oregon rain. I guess it comes with the territory huh?! I feel the rain is a small price to pay for beauty though! Even though we were home bound we still had fun...the kids got their fair share of "tackle in the hole" with Papa. This has been an Edson favorite I guess since Mike, Tim and Sarah were little. I am sure you can imagine how it goes...but in case you lack the vision, you back up as far as you can and then ran at Papa full speed ahead and tackle Him to the ground! Poor Papa got a good work out. I am sure this was a lot easy 30 years ago, huh Papa?! Mike has added one element to the game which I am sure Papa could have done without; it's a knuckle nuggy right to the chest!

Here is Papa after a good game of "tackle in the hole"

Along with quality Grandma and Papa time the kids had a good time together. Spencer had fun beating Lilli, poking her eyes out and apparently eating her ears? And Kaylee and Jake had fun entertaining William. I love to see the cousins together, I am sad that we are all in different States! Well Christmas with 13 as you can imagine involved a lot of gifts! I have never seen a tree with more packages under it as I did Christmas morning! The kids got so much stuff and Santa brought my kids scooters and they got movies, clothes and toys!! We didn't know what to get for grandparents who don't really need anything, so Sarah decided we should go and get family portraits taken since we would all be together and buy them the pictures they wanted. That is an entire blog entry on it's own...that was an experience and a half. And because I am playing catch up right now, maybe some day I will document that!! But this is my favorite picture, with all the cousins together. It was just perfect...nobody really paying attentions, that's how they are suppose to be right?! I felt sorry for the girl that took our pictures, we should have provided her with a bottle of Advil prior to the sitting! She did look like a smart girl, she probably brings her Costco size bottle to work with her! Other than pictures I think that is about the only outing we managed to squeeze in, because the following day, the flu struck and left us really home bound! Oh but did I mention that we got a white Christmas? That almost never happens. The kids were so excited, well I will admit, so was I!! Sarah and Colin on the other had were not thrilled, they just left the snow and were happy to do so!! Whenever I am with Mike's family I can't help but to reflect on how lucky and grateful I am to be blessed with this great addition to my family circle. I love them and love being with them. It makes me sad that we are far from them. And poor Kaylee, it brakes her little heart as well. The evening after Grandma and Papa left she was in tears and when I asked her what was wrong she replied with, "why do Grandma and Papa have to leave, I don't want the to leave. I miss them already!" It of course brought tears to my eyes as well, cuz I missed them already too. Kaylee has such a tender heart (humm where did she get that), she and I just cuddled while I rocked her and we just tried to talk about happy times with Grandma, but we still felt sad! We miss you 'Grama' and Papa!