Christmas 2012

Thank God, it's finally over.  This has been one of the most hellacious Christmas seasons I can remember us ever having as a family.  For the last two weeks, we've all taken multiple turns being deathly ill, I made and even shipped a bajillion cake balls, my house is utterly destroyed (and I have not even a tenth of the energy required to clean it), and I'm so sick of spending money it's not even funny.  But again, we survived, the kids had a great time seeing their family in Gruver, and we had a blast watching them truly enjoy the concept of Christmas presents for the first time.  

We started our festivities in Gruver with Jody's family.  Every year his 93 year old grandmother puts on the Christmas shindig (and yes, she actually does most of the work involving the prep and cooking by herself).  This year, mainly since Jody's mom was laid up with a broken hand, I had the distinct honor of assisting Mary Jo in the kitchen.  She put me to work, I sweated my shirt soaking wet (older ladies tend to like their homes nice and roasty I've noticed), and I didn't even get reprimanded more than once!  In case you were wondering what my offense was, I may have overfilled the corn muffin cups.  Anyhoo, we had a great time, and so did the kiddos.

Mary Jo with all of her great-grandkids (minus one), and her great-GREAT grandbaby too.  And in case you were wondering, Ava is wearing one of Mary Jo's latex dish gloves.

Mary Jo flipping me the hook for screwing up the corn muffins, lol!  

Ava may be a bit infatuated with Grandpa.  Or as Joe says, she's trying to be the sole heir to his inheritance.

After a long day in Gruver, followed by a long drive home, Jody and I got to work getting the girls' presents wrapped and under the tree.  Number one, I HATE wrapping presents.  Number two, I was utterly exhausted and feeling shit-tastic.  So, the presents may have been lumpy looking, and some had a few holes patched with bows.  Who cares, they were destroyed within five minutes anyway.  Oh, and Wonder Mom here also happened across all of the girls' birthday money (still in the cards) while rummaging through the closet for gift bags after I ran out of paper.  Nice work.  Oh well, between that stash and the Christmas money they received, Jody and I plan on opening up savings accounts on their behalf.  

This one took some convincing to get up today.  It was the promise of bacon for breakfast, not presents, that finally lured her out.

Ava had a blast being allowed to tear stuff up.

Daddy's girl.

Remember those "dress me" dolls that teach kids how to do buttons etc?  Apparently they don't exist anymore, so you have to settle for wooden puzzles that do the same thing.

And the number one Christmas present this year?  Markers.  A $2 box of Crayola markers.  Which have already been confiscated for the offense of "redecorating" Ava's high chair.