Christmas Merryment Begins!

We had a very full Christmas week/weekend.  Eric needed to stay back in ND to work so the kids and I took off for destinations east for five days full of Christmas fun!  I had good intentions of leaving early Wednesday morning, stopping in Bismark to finish Christmas shopping then make it the rest of the way to Eric's parent's that night.  Ahh, the best laid plans.  The kids and I each had the flu one after the other starting with Grace Saturday night and ending with JJ Tuesday in the day.  I didn't have any desire to pack and get ready to go Tuesday so instead of leaving early Wednesday morning, I spent the morning getting ready to go.  We didn't get out of town until around noon.  We didn't even make it all the way to Minnesota that night, I wimped out and ended up spending the night at my parents.  It was my dad's birthday anyway so I'm glad we got to spend the evening with them.  Friday we drove the rest of the way to Eric's parent's. 

As soon as the kids were settled with Grandma, I left to work on more Christmas shopping.  My mother-in-law gave me a gift certificate to the black and white store two years ago and I finally had time to use it!  I had a great time trying on almost every dress in the store.  Shopping without kids was almost as fun as the actual shopping.  I got a nice dress and still had time to pick up a few Christmas presents.  While I was gone Eric's sister came and picked up Grace and Micah for a sleep-over.  They had fun watching movies and frosting cookies.  It was my in-laws turn to host the family Christmas party so we hauled decorations and food over to the hall and decorated Friday afternoon.

The little kids had a great time running around and eating as much food as they could grab while we were not looking.  Every time either Grace or Micah ran past they either had something in their mouth or they were begging for something more.  I don't blame them, the tables were covered with so much yummy food it was hard to resist! 

We were able to assemble the grandkids for an annual photo.  Although there are a lot of little kids, on this side of the family Gabby and Tyler are old enough we can count on a minimum of two kids not crying or lifting their dress for pictures.  I think the picture is pretty cute :)

The little kids seemed to congregate in the corner by the bathrooms.  There was always a crowd of little boys back there.  When they discovered there were candy canes in the men's room they were even more interested!

As the night went on, some of the girls got a game of Spoons going.  It got loud and rowdy!  There were several times when someone ended up flying across the table, and did I mention it got loud?  It was fun to watch though! 

And to top it off, Santa Claus showed up.  Grace and Micah were both excited and went right up to talk to him.  I'm sure it didn't hurt that he was handing out chocolate!

Stay tuned for the rest of our holiday extravaganza!  The fun has only just begun...