Christmas 2015

What a wonderful Christmas it was!  Is!  Because it's a season and not a day :)

Things to Remember:

1) Phil and I , once again, got each other the same Christmas gift - a Fitbit. (That's why we're laughing as we are thanking each other).

2) All of my gifts revolved around exercise - a fitbit, new sneakers, a hand-held water bottle, and a running jacket.  Most women would probably be annoyed at the implication of these gifts, but I loved them!

3) We bought a new car!  Well, new to us.  I finally got a Honda Odyssey!!  She's gorgeous and I need to name her.

4) We don't really "do" Santa, but this year, Maggie asked if she could write a letter to him.  This is the first time any of our kids has believed enough to write a letter.  She asked him for an Elf on the Shelf.  Santa wrote back that he needed to keep all his elves in the North Pole to help him get ready (thank God!) so he couldn't send an Elf on the Shelf.  Instead he told her he talked to her parents and she would be getting to go to The American Girl store to finally get Maryellen!  She was so happy!

5) Nothing makes John-Paul happy like a big stack of new books.

(Though the radio alarm clock and Swiss Army Knife were right up there too!)

6)  Nothing makes Eamon and Andrew happy like anything sports-related.

(Here they got watches with stopwatches to time their runs)

7) Declan loved his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse microphone, calls it his "music" and dances all around to it.

Eyelashes for days and weeks and months and years.

8) Alexander was thrilled with the one missing Ice Age movie in our collection.  We watched it all together for a family movie night, and that just warms the cockles of Maggie and Alexander's hearts.

9) We must remember to cook the cinnamon rolls for longer than we think.  The middle ones are always undercooked!

10) We went to 8 am Mass on Christmas morning this year.  We always go to the early Christmas Eve Mass, but it's sooooooo crowded and hot.  The morning one worked out great!  Hardly anybody was there, and we got to go home and feast and open presents more slowly and deliberately than in years past.  

11)  We are contemplating spreading out the Christmas gifts next year over the vacation week.  We did it a little bit this year, and it makes each day so fun, but now we've run out!

12) After last year's Christmas season of the stomach bug, we were just so so so thankful to all be healthy this year.  It's a gift I won't take for granted.

And that's all she wrote...see ya next year!