Christmas report... December report
Christmas Eve
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Joyous Solstice! Um, what else did we miss? Yes, December was a whirlwind of adventure at our house, what with holiday preparations for work and home, work excitement and busyness, and various illnesses and the associated marital discord. Also generally having a 9-month-old and two other kids (note that, while the photo above was taken on Christmas Eve, it was the morning of Christmas Eve: still dark when Lijah had us out of bed to play with him). But we made it! And Christmas Day was wonderfully relaxing at the Lexington Archibalds.
boys and new toys
The boys were delighted with their new toys, and even more delighted to play with Grandma and Grandpa after weeks of being ignored by their parents. Said parents were delighted to eat and eat my mom's food, lie around, and try not to fall asleep, following a night where we got maybe five hours of sleep. Leah actually did take a nap for a bit, and I totally support her in that choice.
taking a break from trying to open it
We've never had an old baby at Christmastime before; Harvey was six months and Zion seven, and neither of them moving around very much for their first Christmas. Lijah at nine-and-a-half is delightfully mobile, and even if he isn't old enough to really get into the Christmas spirit he's good at getting into things generally, so close enough. Both older boys got new Legos he had to be kept away from, but there was plenty of room and lots of boxes and wrapping paper to occupy him—and some toys of his own too, I suppose—so he didn't mind too much. All three of them consented to being dragged away from their amusements for a while to be photographed, and they even smiled some, thanks to some expert clowning behind the photographer; we need to get Grandpa to help with all our photo-shoots!
sweater brothers
Besides generally cuteness, the purpose of the Christmas photo-shoot is to show off the new sweaters, Leah's principle creation of the season. I can't come up with anything to top that, but besides the usual jam and candy I made a toy musket for Zion and a tool box for Harvey, as well as a moderate collection of new ornaments. Gift-giving was reasonably moderate this year, which was fine.
Then yesterday we threw a party for 50+ people; getting ready for that meant that the 26th and 27th of December were, again, far from relaxing. But all went well, and now we are officially on vacation! Nothing to do until... the day after tomorrow, when we need to clean the house again to host folks for New Years Day. Hooray for December!