Elle comes for a visit

Our good friends, Elle and her mom , Miss Erica came to town as the Seibert Family was clearing out.  Aunt Becky and Uncle Bran were still hanging around and Elle and Jo Jo played a lot togther.  WE had a good time watching them because they have no spacial awarenesss.  Jo Jo tried to put on a boot that belinged to Annalise's American Girl Doll and Elle tried to sit in a Babie Chair.  We had lots of laughs at their expense.  Ell did figure out the sit and spin while she was here and it amused her a bunch.  I guess we know what she is getting for her birthday.

The Christmas Circus comes to town.

Last year I had enough of the driving all over Ohio to see everyone.  So this year, everyone will come to us!  After we hosted Grandma and Grandpa Taller, we did a quick change of sheets, some laundry and a trip to the grocery store.  Just as soon as that was complete, the crew started rolling in.

 When you have 17 people living in your house (and the kids outnumber the adults), you have to set some ground rules.  We lined the kids up for dinner (cafeteria style) and told them the rules.  Pee only in the bathroom, stay out of the craft closet and HAVE FUN!  We then sent them through the dinner line.  I have to say, meal times went pretty smoothly.

 As I said, the kids outnumber the adults, but are still much crumbier and spill prone.  So even though there are more of them, they are stuck around the small, kitchen table on the tile floor.  If you are looking for June in any of these pictures, you won't find her because she didn't eat anything that didn't look like a dessert.

Oh, and this kid wasn't allowed at the table yet.

After breakfast, we had Christmas morning complete with everyone in Pajammas!!

This sweet little Georgie (JoJo) was entertaining all weekend. She spent most of the time running around.  We lost her a lot.  IF she was unhappy she would whine "Boppy" until she got what she wanted.  If she was happy, she would walk around chanting "Happy"

Natalie read us the Christmas story again because Grandpa missed it while trying to catch his plane to Brazil a couple of weeks ago.

The poor, neglected, 4th child of Kevin and Elizabeth, Cecelia.  CeCe laid under the tree for several hours over the course of 2 1/2 days.  she didn't seem to mind and kind of liked it when you would go over and say hi.  She would smile at you and then go back to looking at the lights.  She probably is still seeing dots burned on her retinas.

Shlaw has requested that we quit calling her Shlee or Shlaw.  "My name is Annalise!"  Mom can still get away with it though.

Just seconds before the Christmas Chaos begins.

Mid Chaos, I sure hope we don't loose the baby.

There she is. She found her hand and that's all she seemed to  need.

And Santa came to visit.  All dressed up too.

It's Christmas! Jesus was born today!!

There is one day a year that the kiddos can wake us up early.  Christmas Morning.  This year, it started at 6:07 am.  We all rolled out of bed to see a tree loaded with gifts and stockings full of goodies.

 Check out the joy on Annalise's face.  And Santa forgot to shut the fireplace door behind him!

 The girls dig into their stockings to see what Santa has left them.

Santa even remembered Grandma and Grandpa were here and left them stuff in their stockings too!

 In my stocking, my little elf, Evie made me a holiday decoration that she crocheted all herself.  She sewed the words "Merry Christmas" onto this green door hanger.

 I got a rock this Christmas.  Actually, these are geodes from Mom and Dad for the girls.  Cleverly wrapped in their new lunchpails. 

The kids shopped for Jim this year.  They decided he needed some holiday socks. 

And probably the best present ever, a Space Shuttle tie.  We can't figure out why he hasn't worn it yet???

The chaos that is Christmas morning. Checking out their gifts and making a mess!

We got the girls some more Legos this Christmas.  Along with an Ideas book that will help them make new creations.  I do have to say that we have a lot of Legos floating around now, but never to capacity.  You can never have enough bricks.

They also received the lighthouse to remember our trip to Florida this year.

Evie helps to clean up some of the mess.

But wait!  There is one last present.  The girls carry over Jim's present to him.  What's in those cylinders, you ask?  Nothing....yet.  Jim's gift was a kegging system for his homebrew.  Soon we will have to invest in a keggerator.

Christmas was a beautiful, sunny day here.  Evie went outside and started working on a present.  It was gems and crystals in a block of plaster that you had to chisel out.  It took her the better part of the afternoon and she found 16 gems and crystals to add to her collection!

Back inside, Annalise and her new AG doll, Audrey were going through Audrey's wardrobe.  As you can see, Annalise and Audrey were wearing matching dresses for the day. And they have matching Pj's for nightime too!

Of course, we had to break one of those geodes.  Jim and the girls (plus Paige) went out on the driveway to get the rock busting done.

And this is what the inside looked like.  It's pretty crystally.  Merry Christmas Everyone!



Christmas Eve

Finally, Christmas Eve arrived!  With it came Grandma and Grandpa Taller.  We spent one morning walking around Carmel doing a gingerbread scavenger hunt.  We visited lots of local businesses and checked out their houses.  At the end of the hunt, the girls received a goodie bag and we all celebrated by going out for pizza.  Yum!

 On Christmas Eve, we broke out the gingerbread house and all the leftover Halloween candy.  First, I hot glued it all together and the girls and Grandma got to decorating.

 They just about used all the candy we have including the pixie stiks to make colored sugar snow on the rooftop.  It was such a nice a decoration on our holiday table.

 Speaking of holiday table, the traditional food table picture to prove that we all ate.  Some people were getting squirrely--hence the stink eye from mom.

 Can you believe how big our little girls are getting?  They got all dressed up and we went to 7 pm Mass.  It was great because all the squirmy kids were at 5 pm and we didn't have to share our pew with anyone.  Plus, when we got home, it was almost 9 pm and the kids were begging to go to bed so Santa wouldn't skip our house!

Of course, we had to read The night before Christmas before we went to bed.  And to all a good night!