Christmas Eve eve

Ok, so it's the day before Christmas Eve and it's been crazy around here. My sister and her family (3 kids ages 3, 2 and 2 months along with her husband) arrived on Saturday afternoon. I got to meet my new niece, Mikaya Rose. She is a beautiful little girl! Mel and the family spent a couple hours with us on Saturday before heading to Jeremy's cousin's house (where they are staying).

Sunday morning we headed to church where I was in our adult Christmas program. Mel and Jeremy and kids came with us. After church Mel and Jeremy went to see the Lion King play showing at a theater downtown. So, Brad and I got to watch the 3 little ones for about 3 1/2 hours. I forgot how much work little kids are (especially when there are three of them), but we survived. My kids (ages 10 and 12) were a huge help! That evening we headed back to church for the kids' Christmas program.

After the evening program everyone came back to my house (my family, Mel and her family and Ben) for dinner (french dip subs and chips). Then we decided to play Rock Band on the Xbox 360. Mel and Jeremy had never played so it was fun to watch them get the hang of it. We had a great time. They headed out about 9:15 and I think everyone crashed shortly after.

Yesterday was another crazy day. Got up and went out to finish some last minute shopping (from 9 a.m. to noon). Ben met me back at our house shortly after noon and ate lunch. Mel and family arrived around 1:00. Melanie's friend Lindsey came over to cut Jacee and Dawson's hair. I think Dawson was under the impression that Lindsey's scissors were going to cut him and not his hair as he screamed every time she went to use them. It was quite and ordeal but we all got through it. In the meantime, the kids and I were making Christmas cut out cookies. After all had their hair cut and were cleaned up, we decided to decorate the cookies. Jacee was very content to let Aunt Melissa put the icing on and then she "decorated" with sprinkles. She was very decisive about the cookie and color she wanted and she did a great job. Dawson was mostly interested in seeing how much stuff he could get on his cookie before he shoved it in his mouth. It was so funny to watch. After Mel told him he couldn't have any more cookies, he decided he would dump sprinkles on his plate and eat those (see there's always a loophole). They all left about 5:30 as Jeremy's family was getting together for dinner.

(Oh, I did get a 4 mile run in with a little bit of some strength training at 2:00 - much needed.)

Ben was over last night to watch the season finale of our favorite show - Prison Break - and then he headed home and I headed to bed completely exhausted.

Today should be a little calmer. No shopping to do, some cooking and baking, all presents are wrapped. It's mostly going to consist of relaxing, cooking and hopefully going to run. We are supposed to get some ice this afternoon and evening, so any errands I may need to run, I'll make sure to get done this a.m. Grandma arrives tomorrow afternoon and then all the holiday festivities begin.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!