Merry Christmas!

As it does every year, Christmas arrived too quickly—certainly too quickly after Halloween—and long before I had a decent amount of time to bake cookies, buy/wrap presents, clean, etc. But, here we are—Christmas day! And miracle of miracles, all my shopping, baking and wrapping managed to get done (so what if I was up until 1:30 and back in action at 6:30 this morning to get Christmas dinner going).

The living room this morning, before all the action got under way. Looks so peaceful...

Noah makes a cheesy face while he has another bite of monkey bread.

If there were one thing I was really looking forward to this morning, it was watching Noah open his presents. I had visions of wide-eyed wonder and excited proclamations of "Oh boy!" Instead, he was a little bored with the whole thing. In fact, one time when I asked him if he wanted to open another present, he said, "Nope." Alrighty.

Noah with mommy, opening our stocking stuffers.

Little man sizes up his new Elmo chair that laughs and shakes when you sit down.

While Daddy tries to convince Noah that his other presents are fun too, Noah is content to play with his new toothbrush and relax.

Still we had a great time exchanging gifts. I do believe we had satisfied customers all around too. That's always a bonus.

Noah riding on his new "monner," aka "mower." We thought since mowers are one of his very favorite things in the world, he ought to have one.

Look at him go!

At this point, we're only halfway through the day. Noah is down for the count, and David's looking pretty sleepy himself in our recliner. But, on their way are Grandma & Grandpa Frazier (Uncle PJ had to bow out since his dad made a surprise visit to town). We're going to enjoy Christmas dinner with them (I'm getting brave—we're having a buffalo roast), open more gifts and call it a night.

Yesterday (Christmas Eve) we went to David's Grandma's house for a quick Christmas fiesta. We met up with his folks and Uncle PJ as well for some pizza and presents.

Here's Grandma Barb and Frank opening up their loot.

Papaw Chuck gets in the action and tears into his pile.

GG-Barb shows Grandma Emily how to work her new flame-free candle (I got one too!).

Uncle PJ really enjoyed hanging out with Noah, who was too busy to be held by anyone that day...

... Instead he wanted to hug Papaw Chuck's mounted black bear.

Tomorrow, we head up to NE Ohio to my Uncle's house to gather with my mom's extended family. That group always have a very lively round robin gift exchange, so I always look forward to the stealing that will ensue.

Friday night we'll stay at my mom's house, then have our last Christmas with my siblings, their kids and my parents on Saturday morning. Because there's so many of us now (17!!), we can't squeeze it in any other time.

Then Sunday, we'll head on home and all the madness will be over. Noah and I can look forward to another entire week of togetherness. I don't go back to work until Jan. 5, and I'm thrilled! I badly needed some time off/away from the office. And it will be nice to be home without trying to pack in as much work as possible. For once, I'll just be able to play with my son; what an idea.

Hope you are all having a wonderful, memorable holiday!