Christmas Fun

It seems that this may be the way it goes...instead of a post every day or two, it'll be a post every two weeks or so. Of course, this is not the way I would like it to be, but the truth is that just not that much is happening around our house. I could bore you with the mundane details of our days: wake up, eat breakfast, feed girls, put girls down, shower, feed Devin lunch, battle with Devin over nap time, but girls down for another nap, get Devin up, play outside, eat dinner, give baths to the brood, drink heavily, go to bed. Repeat.

Despite the repitious life that we've settled into, we did have a wonderful Christmas. Just like every year, it started with the children's Mass at 4:00 on Christmas Eve. That was a nightmare. Addison (8) was in the choir, so it was me, Todd, ZZ, Brian and my dad, along with Devin (3), Faith (7 mo.), Grace (7 mo.), Presley (4), Brendan (2) and Kaelin (2). Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun? Todd and I held the girls, ZZ and Brian wrangled Brendan and Kaelin and my dad battled Devin and Presley. I can honestly say that if I didn't already know the Christmas Eve readings by heart, I would have no clue what was said that night.

Faith did fall asleep on me during Mass, though, and Grace on Todd. Devin was not a snuggly baby and I can only remember one or two times (seriously) that he fell asleep on me. So Faith and Grace doing so during church was a real treat for both Todd and me.

After finally getting out of church, we headed over to ZZ's house for our traditional BBQ dinner. Since moving to San Antonio, we've also added Tamales to the list. Yum!

The adults tried to have a civilized dinner, but seeing how we open all of our gifts from our family on Christmas Eve, the seven kids were bouncing off the wall with excitement. Soon, the roar became so loud that we gave up on dinner and moved into the family room to open gifts.

Sheer mayhem.

There was paper and tissue and ribbon flying everywhere. Every few seconds a screetch would be yelled by one of the kids, in sheer delight of whatever they just opened.

At one point, Devin just dove under the Christmas tree and started tearing into presents -- anyone's. Todd had to take him out of the room, give him some water and get him calmed down before returning. He was in a total frenzy and was actually panting from the whole ordeal.

Once the dust settled, we piled all of the Pruetz family gifts into the van and headed home. But there was one last present to be received. We couldn't get it to ZZ's house, so it had to stay at ours. It was sitting in the garage, waiting for its new owner.

Devin got a four-wheeler. Pa-pa (my dad) supplied him with a Polaris, battery powered four-wheeler that was presented when we opened the garage door as we returned on Christmas Eve. The look on Devin's face was priceless.

We set out some cookies and milk for Santa and put the bowl of Reindeer feed (prepared earlier in the day from a very special recipe) on the front porch.

We shuttled the kids into bed and spent some time "getting ready for Santa." Then it was off to sleep.

Sometime in the night, Devin crawled in bed with us, so at 7:30 on Christmas morning, he was rolling around in bed, trying to wake Todd and me up. We instructed him to stay put so that we could make sure Santa was all done downstairs.

We got the girls up (apparently, one had awoken my dad and he had her in bed with him. They were "talking" up a storm together) and got them downstairs. We started a fire and waited for the big unveiling.

I went up to our room to get Devin and told him that yes, indeed, Santa had come, and that it was time to go downstairs.

I picked him up and we descended into the living room. There, under the tree, was a Christmas wonderland the likes of which you've never seen.

A fully-stocked tool kit, a Hot Wheels toy that spanned the length of the room, a 12" Buzz Lightyear toy, four or five characters from the movie, "Cars," flashcards, a "Cars" suitcase and various toys and candies in his stocking.

The twins, too, made out like bandits with new outfits, baby Uggs, a new play gym, "The Little Mermaid" movie, and mirrors for their cribs.

We spent the morning playing and soon the whole family arrived (ZZ and her family as well as Todd's parents). We sat around, played with the new toys and enjoyed the day. We ate around 1:00 and stuffed ourselved silly. Brian and I sat next to one another and had a rousing game of, "Who can fill the other's wine glass faster?" We were pretty tanked by the time dessert was served (well, I was tanked. I can't speak for him, I guess).

Afterwards, everyone went home and my wonderful in-laws allowed me time to nap while they played with the kids. Bliss. I took a two hour nap. It was perfect.

That night we went to our neighbors', the Berkeses, house for a little Christmas get together. The whole street was there and we enjoyed some wine, food and fun while the kids all played. It was the perfect ending to a perfect Christmas. You just can't ask for more than this.

And now it's back to the same old stuff, but that's okay with me. I have my family with me and a lot to be thankful for.

The girls are doing so well. Faith is sitting up unassisted (although we still have toppling issues at times) and Grace can sit up too, but seems to prefer lying down. She's her mommy's daughter.

Faith is also getting close to crawling. She's just about up on all fours. Lord, give me strength.

They're doing great, too, on their solid foods. They have rice cereal in the mornings and some sort of veggie in the afternoon. Luckily, we haven't met a veggies we don't like yet. We've been through peas, green beans and carrots. We'll see what happens in the near future.

I'm off to shower while I can. The girls are sleeping and Addison is here today, so she is keeping Devin busy. Nice.

Dad took a bunch of Christmas photos so Todd and I could concentrate on the kids. I've requested that he send them to me and as soon as he does, I'll post them for all to see.

Today's the third day of Christmas. Hope you're all enjoying your three french hens.

Me