MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I still have half an hour left of the day so I can still say it. :o) We had a great 24+ hrs!

Yesterday morning I finished up wrapping before everyone woke up. The navy blue fleece in the closet worked great for the spiderman blanket. I ended up sewing it right sides together, flipped it so it was right and topstitched it about 3/4 an inch from the side. My machine started acting up after I started topstitching the 3rd side. GRRRR! I also had to get to the grocery store so I'd have enough time to cook food for BIL's house. So took a break and went shopping. BIL suggested I not make BBQ pork but chicken wings or baked chicken drumsticks that were on sale at Price Chopper. On the way to Price Chopper I decided the amount of hassle fighting shopping traffic would be and gas money...I'd be better off going to Save a Lot. What a LOT of time it saved me! I lucked out and found a reduced sale on chicken thighs and bought 7pkgs of it...over 28lbs. I baked them till crispy with 4 different sauces (BBQ, Teriyaki, Buffalo Wing, and Lemon Pepper). They were a huge hit. I also brought....pasta salad, green salad and a veggie and dip tray. We ended up having some leftovers to bring home. Salads are gone...snacks and breakfast. Chicken will be used tomorrow.

It was great to see B and M and their families. It's rare that all 10 of my BIL's kids are home at the same time. One of the disadvantages of them growing up *sniff sniff*. BIL's house seemed a bit too small. Funny how years ago it was just fine! LOL A few of us mentioned it might be time to either change things around or rent somewhere for the evening. It's only going to get worse as the kids start getting married and having families. I know that eventually it'll have to change, dynamicwise...but I don't think many of us are ready for it yet.

We got home about 11:30. Everyone had a snack and went to bed. It didn't take Tom and I long to get everything out and arranged. We sat at the kitchen table for a while and talked. We climbed into bed about 2am. I woke up about 6:30. For the first time I can remember I woke up and was ready to go before the 7am timeframe we set for coming down to start. Tom wouldn't get up with me because he still had half an hour to sleep. LOL I went upstairs and woke up Eileen and Olivia (only 2 kids not awake). Olivia took forever to wake up, even though I was talking right into her ear and really bugging her. At 7 the kids came down and got their christmas bags (never found all the stockings). By the time they dug through them...Tom was up. It took the kids about an hour to rip through all the packages. After all the gifts were opened I realized that Luke's Harry Potter DVD set was never opened. I tore my room apart and was about to give up when I had a slight memory of putting something into the hutch in a section that's never used. I pulled open the door and out fell the HP set. PHEW!

Olivia was hilarious. She opened presents, played for a bit then climbed up on the couch with some special toys and promptly fell asleep for a few hours...amongst the chaos. After passing out presents I got my sewing machine to stop having fits and whipped up the last 2 sides of topstitching on the fleece blanket in no time.

Our van's battery is majorly dead and won't take a charge, so we had to take 2 cars. It's fine to squeeze an extra kid (12 people...11 seatbelts) in for a 2.5 mile ride to BIL's on Friday. But I was NOT comfy driving the 30miles to my parents! Although that's what we did. :o(

I hooked up the computer I bought off ebay for my parents and managed to update Windows. It took a while but it's done! DSL is a wonderful thing for that. There were 39 updates to do, it would have taken me FOREVER to do it here on my dialup. I'll be so happy if on Wed I find out we DO live within the DSL service area! Of course my dad is claiming he has NO idea what he's doing and I need to come in and teach him about it. I'm not sure if he'd say he understood even if I did give him lessons. He has a habit of not listening too well and exploring on his own instead. Yet he's afraid to do it when I'm not there trying to tell him things. LOL

I had mentioned to my mom that Tom and I would really like a foam bedtopper...and she got it for us!!!! Woohoooo! My sister bought us 2 sets of flannel sheets. The first thing I did after getting home tonight was to make up my new bed. I can't wait to go to bed now! I just had to come and update before Christmas was truly over.

Tomorrow we're having a day at home. I have a bunch of snacks for the day and am planning a nice ham dinner. I think my parents may come out. I told my sister she could come out too and the girls could spend the night. I feel sorry for them having to stay home alone on vacation. Of course they were all asking for a sleepover before the end of the night tonight anyways. My sister refused to talk about it seeing as last year her having my girls come home with them on Christmas, ended with Carrie in the hospital with meningitis. LOL Carrie started complaining her elbow/tricep was hurting and she was favoring it. I'm afraid it's a relapse of her muscle problems she had in Jan/Feb after her meningitis. I'll be taking her in to the dr if it's not better on Monday. :o(

The kids have been put on notice that we're picking up and wiping down first thing in the morning. I'm sure they're happy about that! LOL It really shouldn't take too long (although my kitchen will need quite a bit of work as usual), things are looking better then normal. I asked Tom if he could run to Lowe's tomorrow morning and buy a new door for the bathroom. It finally fell out of the wall and it is in no way, shape or form repairable.

Well now I'm off to try out my new bed! Hope everyone's holiday was a great one too!