Merry merry!

Merry Christmas! I'm trying to get Christmas posted before the end of the year. Since it's New Year's Eve Eve, I'm doing okay. I tried to explain the "eve eve" thing to Miles today and gave myself a headache. Maybe him too. But he does get that we start a new calendar on Thursday. Speaking of calendars, the Advent countdown calendar that I made was a huge deal with Miles. He reminded me every day to put the new piece on and would tell us how many days were left until Christmas. Much easier than me answering him thousands of times a day "How long til Christmas?" So yes, he was excited this year.

Mimi and PawPaw came from Memphis to celebrate Christmas this year. They made it just in time for us to go to the children's mass at 4. We got to the church at 3:20 and the main sanctuary was already packed with 1500+ people, and the overflow was filling the family center across the courtyard. That ended up being standing room only with 5-600 people as well. We were lucky to get a row close to the musicians, as that is Miles's favorite part of the service. Erin, Josh and Eileen came in soon after and sat with us. We passed the time until mass started with hymns (carols) that would be sung during the service. When it was time to stand and finally begin Miles asked, "Is it over?" Hah! Not quite. But he did great and was especially excited to see his buddy Eli sitting a few rows behind us.

We got home, ate chili and got ready for Santa! We didn't have trouble at all getting them to sleep, and as usual Miles popped out of bed at a little after 6. We called Mimi & PawPaw to tell them to come on over from the hotel but they were already waiting for us in the driveway. Didn't want to miss a minute. We let Audrey sleep and Miles started opening his presents. (See the dark window above? pre-dawn). Santa brought him a cool Little Einsteins globe, more Diego stuff and puzzles and games. Oh and his favorite, Wall*E! We've taken advantage of winter break and watched it a few times.

Audrey finally woke but besides noticing a few new toys, didn't seem all that impressed. She was ready for her breakfast. She got some fun toys, but my favorite was the ballerina bow holder that I made for her. I made one for my niece Kate and liked it so much I had to make another. So cute hanging in her room!

A cool gift that we gave to the grandparents was a webcam and a Skype setup. We set everyone up over Thanksgiving and have worked out the technical issues now. It is so fun to chat with the grandparents over the computer and see them. Definitely holds the interest of the kiddos. If you have far flung family with high speed internet, I highly recommend it. (Dad, we'll have to get you a camera since your built in isn't working!)

Hope everyone has a fantastic new year and happy 2009!