“WAKE UP!!!!!  IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!!”

This was Luke.  Who charged into our room, turned on all the lights and hollered for us to get up.  At 2:43 a.m.

“Luke!” We said in unison, “It’s only 2:43!”

“Oh, I looked at my clock and thought it said FIVE 43.”

Damn digital clocks.  Clearly the hopeful child simply read his 2 backward.  This never would have happened with an analog clock.  (Of course, those don’t come in the shape of a Lego Star Wars storm trooper.)

With only about 3 hours of sleep under our belts, we weren’t about to get up.  We told Luke to climb into our bed (wouldn’t want him tempted by the gifts under the tree on the way back to his room) and told him to go back to sleep.

Very close to the actual 5:43 this morning, we were re-awakened by our oldest boy.  Soon he was joined by all siblings capable of getting themselves out of bed.  There was no going back at that point.

And 30 minutes later?

It was all over.  I didn’t even have time to grab my camera.

Scenes from the event:

P.S. Be sure to check my Flickr page (click the little Flickr pics on the left of this page) for more Halloween takes and pumpkin carving!

When this is what I see when I look through the viewfinder, how can I not love being a mother?

The reality of the situation is that we’re all about to strangle one another.  Dan couldn’t wait to get back to work on Monday.  We tried baking cookies, but you know how that went.  The only adventure was a torturous trip to the mall to exchange the boots Dan bought me.  (Yes, we ALL went.  TOTAL nightmare.  But, I did get my boots.)  We’ve played games together… Wii Toy Story Mania.  Whoever titled it was right on.  The kids go bonkers playing it, fighting over it, trying to figure it out…  There’s an obvious reason most Wii games are only made for one or two players.  Unfortunately, I just figured that out.

Christmas was lovely.  The kids went bezerk at the sight of all the gifts under the tree.  We tried our best to reign them in, create a little order, remain calm.  That lasted for about 30 minutes.  Maybe.  In no time all was unwrapped (and not necessarily by the intended recipient of the gift).  Poor Andrew.  All he did all morning was crawl around and eat wrapping paper.

His first Christmas was just a little different than Jack’s!

A.P.'s first Christmas

Jack and Dan 2002

Jack

Stocking

For the last few days, it’s been all I can do to keep the baby from choking on Nerf darts.  Dan was getting so beat up, he decided to go out and get his own gun – you know – to defend himself.  Now there are Nerf wars almost every night.  The kids load up and wait for Dan to walk in the door at night.

Maria was thrilled to receive a new doll for Christmas.  Her only challenge has been keeping it away from Luke, who keeps threatening to shave her bald.  The other night, Maria had to hire Jack to defend her and her doll with his CS-35, just in case Luke made (another) kidnapping attempt.

Gotta run… I think I hear Sam’s new dinosaur eating Maria’s doll, and there’s some screaming aimed at the Wii.

Check out my Flickr pics when you get a chance – there are some cute ones, like this:

First, the dog ran off.

Just kidding… that was yesterday, when I was trying to get the kids off to school for the last time before the break.

After dinner, I shooed the children out of the kitchen so I could clean up the dishes and prepare for The Event.

As if a cooking show hostess, I measured out each ingredient and put them into separate bowls for the children to add when it came time.  I set up the mixer.  I got out the cookie sheets.  I put together the cookie press (yes, I have one).  And then… I called them in.

After pushing each other out of the way and pulling up chairs and stools, Dan sent them all off to go wash their hands.  When they returned, there was more pushing and shoving.  I had them each line up to dump in their ingredients, as the mixer slowly churned.

One child dumped the bowl in with the ingredients.

Two children were put into a timeout for shoving.

One child was given hot sauce on the tongue (Sassy Spray doesn’t work for him anymore) for using inappropriate language.

Sprinkles were dumped.

Dough was devoured.

The cookie press didn’t cooperate.

But… finally, the pans were ready to hit the oven.  (And the parents were ready to hit the bottle!)

Then came the clean up.  And a lesson in sweeping.  And a Flat Maria covered in sprinkles – at first accidentally, then purposefully.

Unfortunately for him, the evening ended with Jack writing sentences.  But, he got the last word in, as you can see:

Makes it look like we have a big family, dontcha think?

Btw, thank you to my wonderful, crafty, talented sister, Caroline, for making the stockings!

To double ease the pain, my dear husband flew our entire family out to Utah so we could celebrate by attending his brother’s wedding.  Nothing like getting someone else to pay for the party!  It seems to be a tradition in Dan’s family to double up on celebrations.  This is the second wedding/birthday combo and there are numerous shared birthdays.  Makes it easier to remember significant dates.  I guess.

Truthfully, with all the packing to do, clothing to buy and fretting to do, I almost forgot about turning The Big 4-0 27.

We flew out on the busiest travel day of the year (What idiot made those reservations?!?  Oh, yeah.  Me.) and headed toward what was supposed to be one of the worst snow storms in years.  With five children.  On a flight leaving too early to serve alcohol to the stressed-out parents.

Things couldn’t have gone smoother.  We flew out of the smaller airport and left early enough to avoid the crowds.  Despite our large party of mostly crazed young’uns, we made it through security quickly and to our gate in plenty of time.  The kids were thrilled to be on the airplane and were entertained all through take off.  Andrew did wonderfully until he was woken from his nap by siblings asking for snacks, electronics, toys and books.

We were welcomed to Utah by Uncle Tom and several inches of snow.  This, too, was entertainment for the kids, as we hadn’t seen snow yet this year.

So as not to drone on and on, I’ll give you the highlights of our trip:

Thursday: Early to Uncle John’s (the groom) for family pictures.  Oh, what FUN!!!  There were only 31 of us for the picture and who posed the most difficulty?  Yes.  The Chicago Branch.  First Sam was being difficult.  Then Luke got mad and ran off.  Then it was back to Sam.  Things deteriorated at lightening speed.  Picture taking and our family just don’t go well together.  I guess I should be happy no one was dropped this time.  Of course, the lack of food and drink prior to the photo shoot probably added to the situation.  But, there was NO WAY any of my clan were going to eat or drink before a picture!

Once the pictures were finished and the eating (kids) and drinking (adults) began, all was well again.  We were joined by even more family throughout the day (I think the total was over 60) and had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day meal.

Friday: the whole crew was back at it again, eating and drinking.  This time at Cucina Toscana.  The 22 children in attendance got their own tables, fru-fru drinks and a special meal, while the adults enjoyed wine, more wine, delicious food, and more wine.

Saturday: we celebrated my birthday by having breakfast out with our family and Tom’s family, which was a nice surprise.  The kids all helped Aunt Cami bake me a cake, and we ate that for lunch before heading to the hotel in Ogden so we could begin preparing for the wedding.

The hotel was wonderful.  We had a corner suite that overlooked downtown Ogden.  We had a front row seat to the annual Santa Run and got some pics in before heading out to the Snow Basin Ski Lodge to witness the ceremony, of which Maria was a part (flower girl) and Dan was a part (groomsman).

Despite leaving in plenty of time (yes – I was able to get everyone showered and dressed!) we held up the wedding because the brand-new GPS sent us the *&$%#ed up way we chose to take the long, winding, snowy route through the mountains to get to our destination.

The lodge was beautiful, as was the bride, and the ceremony went off without a hitch (despite my loud, restless little boys).

We even managed to take MORE pictures relatively painlessly.  (Special thanks goes out to Andrew for waiting until after the wedding photos to dump beer all over the both of us.)

Unbelievably, I was happy-birthday-ed throughout the evening.  It was nice (but may have been nicer if everyone could have just said “Happy Birthday,” instead of – too loudly for my taste – “Happy 40th Birthday!!!”)  The bride and groom – ever so thoughtful – even had a gift for me.

The party went late into the night (for us) and four out of five of our little ones fell asleep as soon as we loaded them into the car.

The next morning, we woke to beautiful snow falling outside our huge hotel room windows.  Lots of it.  Lukie eyed the mountain of wedding gifts that we’d stored for the newlyweds and said to me, “You sure got a lot of birthday presents!”  Haha.  Luckily for John and Hanalee, the kids were too tired to tear into them.

Okay… enough for now.  Look for a post about The Adventures Home later.