Where are the reindeer?

Bubu was excited that the reindeer liked the carrot he left out for them, but was sad that they didn't stick around for him to meet personally.

Stockings are my favorite part!

The wagon was a super hit.

Tank was so happy to have his own bike now.

Spike loved his new doggy jammies.

Super cool Spiderman socks!

Bubu loves this book "A Camel that Took a Walk". He is so excited that he doesn't have to take this one back to the library.

Cousin H is cool, Bubu follows his older cousin everywhere!

I caught the ever elusive teenager and forced him to take a picture with me.

All my boys, could I be any happier, Hubby took this picture, I was really impressed. Picture taking is Not his thing!

My mom made her angel food cake for Jesus, and we all sang Happy Birthday, long family tradition.

Ah, the morning after.
~

So I hope everyone had a wonderful time together with their families.

~

We had a nice time, my mom came down after all. She called in the morning on Christmas Eve and was super sad because she decided she couldn't drive after all, in the ice and snow and would have to spend Christmas alone. I just couldn't bare that idea, so Ryder drove all the way to her house to get her. He was our super hero, braving the icy roads, driving for over 4 hours because he had to go at a crawl for most of it. The boys were so excited to see her.

~

We had our Christmas Eve chili, it's a tradition my mom has been torturing us with since I was a little kid, I like it now, but I hated it when I was a kid, and I can't say that my boys like it much more then I did. Oh well. It's a sweet chili, kinda strange, she even puts kiwi and pineapple in it, which is well, just strange.

~

I got over my whole Santa hang up and we sprinkled our magic reindeer food that we made in preschool out on the lawn, and put out milk and cookies and a super big carrot for his reindeer, they got spoiled this year. I decided I like the stocking thing to much to not do it, and no one else can stuff stockings as well as Santa!

~

When the boys woke up and I was walking down the hall with them I was talking to Bubu about checking to see if Santa and his reindeer came and he cried out "I don't see any reindeer!" He was really upset about this. I explained that we wouldn't be actually seeing one, that they come during the night when you are sleeping, and I showed him the carrot that had bites taken out of it. He was a bit disappointed. Poor thing apparently he thought that Rudolf would be waiting for him in the living room! None of the boys were willing to even look at the tree let alone get into the stockings until they had their morning cocoa. Which gave Ryder a chance to make coffee thank goodness!

~

We got into the stockings, then took a break for our special Christmas morning breakfast, then back to presents. I had found a favorite book of Bubu's that we had read a million times this summer, a book we had checked out from the library. Now he has his own special copy, you should have heard him scream when he saw it, super funny! It's a book that only him and I seem to understand, no one else really seems to like it. I had to read it right there on the spot, and he soaked in every word. Spike and Tank got a special book too. The big hit with all of them was the red wagon I believe. Bubu has all the sudden become obsessed with Spiderman, and I got him some Spiderman socks and a Spiderman pillow case and he was over the moon excited about that!

~

We went to hubby's mom's place in the afternoon, got to see J that was nice. Hubby's sister was there too, and Bubu was super excited to see his cousin. I had asked them not to do the present thing, because we weren't, except for something small for cousin and J. Either way they got us all presents anyway and went above and beyond again like always. It is sweet of them to be so giving, but it's also frustrating because I asked them not to. It was hard to be around *Jnut* (hubby's mom, I think I will call her this from now on!) but hubby told me I did a good job, I am a good pretender when I need to be. I did hid in the bathroom, a lot, they probably thought there was something wrong with me! J looked so grown, he is taller then me now! It was so good to see him, I hugged him a trillion times, drove him crazy, he is almost 14 so he can only handle so much snuggling. I wrapped my arms tight around him over and over again while he squirmed to get away, but I could tell he like the snuggles, he just needed to pretend to save face. He told me he loved me a few times and was being really sweet, I miss him so much! I know he can easily drive me crazy, but not being around him is hard too. He is growing so fast, it was quite shocking actually. I cried a bit on the way home, which hubby was sweet about this time.

~

We got home well after dark, and hubby then got back on the road and drove my mom home, he didn't get home until real late, it was so absolutely sweet and unselfish of him. Over all it was a great day, although completely exhausting for all. One of the funniest things I overheard was my husband saying to Bubu while he was having a melt down at the end of the day, "you had to much sugar huh" and Bubu sobbing "yes". We all had too much sugar...