Christmas 2011

I had such a great Christmas this year!  I am so thankful my family was able to come to Colorado and celebrate with me :)  While adding 7 more people to the house certainly added some extra stuff and noise, it was so much fun to have everyone stay at the house.  My dad was able to stay for a couple of days and my sister and her family ended up staying for almost a week.  In addition to the fun of Christmas, we were able to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Aquarium.  The kids seemed to have a great time at both places and it was nice to have a trip where we could just have fun.  For part of their Christmas gifts, I gave the kids cash so they could get souvenirs at each place.  I did not realize how much thought has to go into them picking something out!  It was kind of interesting to watch but I can tell Brenda has it all figured out.  The funniest part going with the kids to spend their gift cards at WalMart, Target, and the American Girl store.  I think Michael was the only one that had something specific in mind that he wanted to get with his gift card. 
Since we had just gotten a giant dumping of snow, the kids also had a great time playing outside in the snow.  I had no idea how much stuff it took to have 4 kids playing outside in the snow.  My two favorite quotes from the vacation came from Jack and Carter.  For Christmas, Santa got Jack a canister of cappachino.  He holds up the can and says "Now I know Santa MUST be real because there is no way Mommy and Daddy would ever get me this!".  During the trip to the museum, Brenda had strapped Carter in the stroller because he wasn't using his best listening skills.  He was less than pleased about being strapped in and kept shouting "Let me out! Let me out!".  Brenda told him she would let him out if he could behave.  With the honesty that only a child can have, Carter said, "I am not going to behave" and he quit asking to get out of the stroller :) 
Now that Alexis was a year older, she was a little more fun for Christmas.  She managed to pop the lid off her M&M stocking stuffer and had some chocolate for breakfast.  The she started stealing everyone's apples- funny girl!  Of course she didn't want the apple that I peeled for her, only the apples with the skin on that she kept gagging on.  I have no idea how many apples she ended up eating part of but it seemed like everytime I turned around, she had a new one.  Overall, this was a great holiday.  I redeemed myself with my cooking when everyone liked my Lemon Skillet Chicken, I learned that Crisco actually goes bad, I started seeing the magic that comes from making sure kids believe in Santa, and I had fun :)  Hopefully I will have pictures to post soon!