Present Overload

Well, as usual, my parents have overdone themselves again. They tend to go a little overboard with the Christmas presents. They have six grand kids. This year they got each grand kid nine presents. Take into account that a lot of the presents are clothing and it isn't as bad as it seems. Still, it does seem excessive.

All in all, our Christmas was very nice. We stuck by our tradition of homemade clam chowder and one present on Christmas Eve. The next morning the girls slept until after 7:00. We actually got them up. After breakfast, we all got cleaned up and dressed. Then we opened our presents. About 10:30, we packed up and headed over to Mom and Dad's for the rest of the day.

Here are a few pictures from the day.


Finding what Santa has left them

Emily with her Santa Gift

Kaitlyn with her Santa Gift (Little Mermaid Doll)

The whole family on Christmas Morning

Christmas Party

We had my company Christmas party at our house last Saturday. My company is very small. There are only four of us, but we have eight kids between us. Seven of them are between the ages of 2 and 6 (Patrick is 12). So it was a huge hit when my father showed up dressed as Santa.

It actually turned out better than I thought. I had previously purchased a gift for each child that Santa had with him. Each child went up to Santa to receive their gifts, except the two children that were two years old (including Kaitlyn). Also, Patrick knew that Santa was actually Grandpa, but Emily and Kaitlyn didn't figure it out.

Patrick was very good. He made a big deal out of Santa and put most of the other kids at ease with the situation. Plus, he played well with all of the younger kids, which gave us parents more time to relax and enjoy ourselves (and eat).

So, all in all, the company Christmas party was a huge success.

Christmas shopping is complete

We are done with our Christmas shopping!! This has got to be a first in our household.

Kirsten and I took a couple of days away from the kids, letting my parents were watch them. We took a trip to the coast and stayed at a very nice hotel over looking the beach. The weather was perfect, sunny and no wind, about 60 degrees. While we were there, we took a couple of nice walks on the beach and went out to eat a couple of times. Once at Mo's (a tradition) and once at a very nice restaurant.

Also, we did a lot of shopping at a factory outlet mall. We were able to score some great deals on clothes for the kids among other things.

After a couple of nights at the coast, we left early and got back into town several hours before we were to pick up our kids. We shopped for that time and got everything we needed to get for the kids (both ours and the nephew's) for Christmas and Emily's Birthday and almost everything for the exchange presents for the extended family (some items are perishable and need to bought later).

This is truly amazing for us. In years past, we have still been shopping a few days before Christmas.

All in all, we are