A Very Kennedy Christmas

Since having William and deciding that we would always have Christmas morning at our house, we've had to get a little creative with seeing everyone during the holidays.  Made even more complicated by the fact that I do not have any vacation days left, and you have entire families getting together to celebrate Christmas a full 8 days before the 25th.  Honestly, I won't complain, I like dragging out the holiday and it means I get to spend more quality time with everyone instead of rushing around and stressing about having the car packed by 2pm on Christmas day.

 So Friay afternoon we headed up to Cleveland.  Patrick slept most of the way and William was very well behaved even though I think he only napped about an hour.  We got up to my Dad's house without hitting any major traffic and had several hours before dinner - which was, of course, pizza because it was Friday.  I love how predictable and dependable pizza night is.  Seriously - it's the whole reason we rush and rush on the drive up.  It's the best pizza ever.  EVER.

Pizza night is usually accompanied by a movie.  We all chose "Water for Elephants" and I was pleasantly surprised.  I had little to bad expectations of the movie and it was good.  Really really good.  And I didn't think about vampires once.  Very convincing Robert.  In past, the night before "Christmas" all us kids would get stupid, play beer pong in the basement, and stay up way too late.  Apparently we learned a hard lesson last year and none of us felt like a repeat.  Plus, it's a lot less fun to think about when you know you will be up at 2am and 5am with an infant, and the toddler will be up around 5:30 screaming for you to come play...  The joy of being a parent. :)  I love it.  I love sleep.... but I love them too.

Saturday morning came much too fast, and we were up just as early as we thought we would be.  We had to wait until 8am for Christmas to really "arrive" though.  I think Patrick ate and slept through most of it.  Just like William did his first Christmas.  William was VERY into this year though.  He received many Cars from Santa, his aunts and uncles, and Mima & Grandaddy.  Kiddo is set.  And his big gift was a remote control Cars track with a moving Mater.  He was in hog heaven.  Sam could barely get it put together fast enough.  And William put every single vehicle, train, etc on the track - whether it fit or not.

Patrick got some adorable clothes, very cool toys, and had an all around wonderful time taking it all in.  He loved talking to all of his aunts and uncles and watching his crazy brother flit around with all of his toys.  William of course kept trying to claim Patrick's very cool animal train - it IS pretty awesome - and is sitting on his bookshelf waiting for P to be old enough to play with it.

Around noonish, the rest of the family started showing up.  Grandmother, Uncle John, Uncle Tim, and then Uncle Gerry & Aunt Cindy with their two kids, Dash and Dane.  William loves to play with the boys and has gotten fairly good at sharing his toys, which is pretty impressive considering the age.  I think William was napping when they got there, we try and stick to the schedule for everyone's sake (haha)...  I think we went ahead and started lunch without him...which is the surefire way to make sure he wakes up just as we sit down.  And, without fail, he did.  But he wasn't interested in eating (as usual...) and he played with his car track.

After dinner, came presents.  It's always fun to see the whole family stuffed into the family room.  Which is really large - but so is our family!!  It's hilarious - there's always paper flying - Thankyous being yelled across the room - and the kids acting a fool.  I love it.  Nothing better than family.

Sunday morning, we were off to my mom's house for Christmas there.  She hadn't seen the boys since September so it was fun for her to see how much they've (especially Patrick) has grown.  William was scared to death her dog was going to "get him" but once we told him to say "no no doggie - go away" he felt much better and got some of his confidence back.  Maybe we should start bringing our dogs in more....  William immediately wanted to eat breakfast, so that was that, and we all sat down.  William stole everyone's grapes. It's funny when he picks something and locks on... but he's swallowing food - so we're happy.

Presents were just as much fun.  Our kids are so spoiled loved.  William got a very cool remote control car that drives just on the floor, no track needed, and it was amazing at how quickly he picked it up.  Granted, most of the time he just spins the truck around instead of steering it in a particular direction, but still - pretty cool.  He played and played.  We tried to get him to take a picture and that was kind of a lost cause, but I think we managed to quickly grab one.. maybe.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed.  I think we all took naps and then packed the car.  Ate dinner and drove home.  We decided to leave late so the boys would sleep again and that was successful - no screaming babies.  Back to work on Monday.  Fun fun.  Now we will do it all again this weekend.

SIDE NOTE: William poo-poo'd on the potty at school this week.  It was kinda a fluke but he did tell Ms Phyllis that he needed to go and she just barely got him on the toilet but we are still totally counting it.  That being said, he didn't want to go near the potty after he was done, apparently it caught him off guard a little bit... silly boy.  So, I guess come January we should probably for real start potty training.  It will be fun to pick out mini-boy underwear though.  I saw some Yo Gabba Gabba that was adorable, but I bet William would rather have Cars or Thomas... And I need to pick up some M&M's, but those never last long in this house... uhoh....

Merry Christmas!