Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas holiday was nice. If you celebrate this holiday - we hope yours was also nice!

Christmas Eve Day was busy. We took our toy donation to Seattle Children's in the morning. After that, we went home and started prepping our Christmas Eve dinner... home made lasagna and bread. When Giuliana woke up from her nap we let the kids open family gifts... gifts from cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and Dan & I. Then, we raced out of the house at 4:30pm so we could hopefully still find seats for Christmas Eve mass. After church, we came home and ate dinner. (Well... some of us ate and some of us could not stop playing with our new toys. But, those of us who did eat ate enough for the little people who didn't!)

The kids had so much fun opening gifts. They each seemed truly thankful for every gift they opened... it was cute. Rocco started a routine of opening a gift, yelling out with huge excitement what it was, then yelling thank you, and then holding it next to his face saying "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese" so I could snap a picture (even if I didn't have my camera ready) and then begging Dan to open it. Also, as Rocco would open gifts, Giuliana would be VERY interested in whatever it was he got (Batman, Spiderman, transformers, whatever...). So, Rocco ended up clearing a spot on the kitchen counter to "safely keep his gifts out of Giuliana's reach". And, after a new gift was opened, he would go throw the new gift up high onto his pile. It was hilarious! He was literally storing all his newly acquired gift stash! Of course, it didn't take long for Giuliana to figure out what was going on or where all of Rocco's cool gifts were... which meant lots of negotiating between an almost 4 and almost 2 year old. But, it was funny all the same. I think Rocco kept his *stash* piled in that spot on the counter for at least the next day and a half. Grabbing what he wanted, as it was needed. Tossing unused new toys back onto the pile. I was eventually able to talk him into allowing us to move the new gift stash to the play room and his bedroom.

Giuliana could have cared less about opening gifts on Christmas Eve. She was much more interested in taking what gifts were already opened that interested her from her brother and sister. This created a number or tantrums and meltdowns between her and Rocco on Christmas Eve, as she was very fast to put claim on Rocco's new Batman and Batman mobile. This girl is in LOVE with Batman!! I'd say she loves Batman just as much as Rocco does, if not more. Matter-of-fact, she had a 45 minute meltdown/tantrum before bed on Christmas Eve because SHE wanted to sleep with Rocco's new Batman. I felt so bad for Rocco because HE wanted to sleep with his new Batman. But, we were eventually able to convince Rocco to sleep with his new Buzz Lightyear toy and give Giuliana the Batman. JEEEEESH!! Anyway... Giuliana did show much more interest in actually opening gifts on Christmas morning. And, now as luck would have it, every day she is trying to sneak open her birthday gifts (which are sitting out with Rocco's). Every day, we find her stealing a birthday gift from the pile and when she's busted with it (about to open it, or in route to take it into hiding for her secret opening) she'll run from us holding the gift and we have to catch her and put it back into the pile. She's already opened two of her birthday gifts completely! This little girl keeps us on our toes!

Gabby got a lot of big girl gifts this year from both us and Santa. Even she recognized that she received less toys, and more "grown-up" gifts (or gift that are more useful). Things like new bed sheets and a new big-girl quilt for her room. Earrings, shoes, board games, crafty stuff, and clothing items she had been asking for. She loved everything and was very thankful for all of her gifts and I was glad to see that. And, she had a lot of fun helping the little kids try out their new toys. She's such a GREAT big sister!

Before bed, we read "T.was the night before Christmas". We tucked the kids in. (That sounds a lot easier than it was - because Giuliana's Batman tantrum made it horrible on xmas eve!!) And, then it was time to start the tricky stealth mission of getting the stockings filled and wrapped S.anta gifts downstairs by the Christmas tree. And of course, Dan still had to build stuff. Every year, he waits until Christmas Eve to do this... and then he'll be cursing and complaining in the next room, and he'll come over and complain to me that he doesn't have the right parts or whatever. And, every year, I suggest he starts this earlier... but no. He tells me it's his tradition. And, of course, he has all the parts... it's just he's probably numbed his stress too much with the b.ourbon to notice. Men... go figure!

Anyway, Santa was very generous this year. He surprised the kids with two family gifts. One was a big holiday train (that sings holiday music and has little elves pumping it along the tracks) that the kids LOVE. We'll pull this out each year at Christmas and have it be sort of another Christmas decoration in the house. The other family gift was another i.Pod Touch (to hopefully stop the iFights and provide sanity on our upcoming trips so each child has their own iSomething). Santa gave Giuliana a new baby doll, a wooden baby crib, changing table and high chair, a tea set and some M&D wood kitchen stuff. She was very happy (although I think she would have been just as happy with getting a B.atman doll!). Rocco got lots of transformers, an Optimus Prime transformer helmet and some more B.atman and S.piderman related stuff. He was in Heaven! Gabby got lots of H.ello Kitty stuff (per her request to Santa) including new H.K. wall stickers (to replace the princess wall stickers! wow - never thought this day would come!), a H.K. wallet, a H.K. i.Pod Touch case, a H.K. vanity/makeup mirror, and lots more H.K. stuff. She also got her very own speaker/docking station to put in her bedroom for her i.Pod, some sparkly hoop earrings (she was VERY excited about her hoop earrings!), and a new 2 wheeled R.azor scooter.

By the time Christmas Day hit... this momma was exhausted!! The culmination of all the errands, shopping, wrapping, getting projects done for work and Matteo's Dream Fund, being a taxi for the kids, having Dan gone traveling for business for 16 days in December, being pregnant, volunteering in Gabby's classroom, prepping/planning for 3 kids birthdays... ACK!! I think I spent November and December in a whirlwind of checking stuff off my lists for the past two months and it was as if my body finally said "I NEED A BREAK!". So, on Christmas Day, my feet hurt, my legs hurt and I felt like a semi-truck had run me over. From the moment I woke up, I knew I needed a day to just sit around and do nothing. And, I didn't need to talk anyone else into that (no surprises there!). So, that's what I did. Nothing. And, let me tell you... I can honestly not remember the last time I did this (I'm too Type A to just sit around. I like to be doing something.) But, it felt GREAT! Everyone should do this at least once a year! The kids had a grand time... they played with their toys all day, listened to music, we played the new board games and Dan helped them open toys and played games on his iPad.

Christmas Day was very quiet. But - it was exactly what we needed and we enjoyed it. We stayed in PJ's all day. We ate leftovers... and just chilled!

We hope you also found some time to just relax over the holiday break!