Whew!

Before I launch into the incredibly long description of our Christmas holidays, I would like to officially announce that the "other miracle" I hinted at in other posts is Katie - Patrick's sister - is PREGNANT!!!! Katie and Alan are going to be parents on August 8th (if he or she cooporates!)!!!! We are so excited for them to have this wonderful experience and for us to share in their joy as Aunt and Uncle! Congratulations Katie and Alan!

Well, we successfully made it through the Christmas Festivities without too many mental breakdowns or struggles! Of course it would happen that we ALL would get sick on Christmas - I mean all of us, Me, Patrick and both boys had some form of snotty nose, coughing and general aches and pains. But with the help of our ever so flexible and generous family, we made it a good time none-the-less! I do wish I could post pictures of the boys (well really the oldest one) opening the 6 ft long stockings I got for them to open. I had a stroke of genius and decided to do the HUGE stockings to put all their toys, etc. in so I didn't have to wrap anything. It really was fun!

We had our usual visit to PawPaw's house Christmas Eve to share in the holidays with that side of the family - Thank you to Aunt Judy, Aunt Patti and Uncle Tim, Carla and Bob, Chris and Crystal and Ashlee and Ally, PawPaw, PaPa and GrandMickey (That's the one I am going with!), Katie and Alan and Megan and Fernie for helping to make Christmas Eve special for these boys even though we will only have them for a short while! Then we packed up again and head over to PaPa and GrandMickey's house to spend the night and wait for Santa to come! Aside from a few "sleeping in a new place" blues (the Transformers tent and sleeping bag helped!) the night went relatively well. We got up - had some delicious Christmas morning breakfast (thanks PaPa!) and opened our stockings! After playing with every toy we got several times over, we packed away most of it in the fantastic stockings I got - good for toting gifts home in also! - and we got ourselves ready for the evening festivities. The other side of Patrick's family came over that evening and we had even more goodies to open - the oldest is getting the hang of this opening thing - and a floor full of gifts for the Chinese Auction. Despite his temptations, the oldest did very well in not opening gifts that weren't his. Thanks go out again to Aunt Toni and Uncle Travis, Aunt Mary and Uncle Scott, Aunt Vicki and Uncle Robbie and PaPa and GrandMickey for some wonderful gifts to add to the "pile" already in the stockings! We would also like to thank the "tall boys" in the group for their assistance in providing well timed distractions for the boys while other gifts were being opened! I do beleive all the "boys" had a good time! :)

Whew! Sounds like a lot of activities to for a whole 24 hours! It was, but well worth it. But don't worry - we still have more! The boys are still with us and this week my family comes over on New Year's Day to have our Christmas (another of my family traditions) and I know there will be more fun to have! We are going to be making ornaments so I know I had better go and get some plastic tablecloths and old shirts ready because it is going to be a wonderfully fabulous mess - and I should get some for the boys too - just in case they are messier than the adults! :)

We expect to have both boys through to next week. I imagine the oldest will go home first and the youngest will be with us another week or so after that - though we really have no information about what to expect in the next couple of weeks. In the mean time, we will enjoy our short time with these little guys and pray for a positive future for them both!

Happy New Year to you all!