24 Hours of Christmas

It felt like the movie "A Christmas Story" on TBS - 24 hours straight. I enjoyed every bit of it. (except for the cleaning up after sick kids part)

Max kicked off Christmas Eve morning by throwing up twice. Our party started at about 1:00 pm with Darric's family. Two of our guests had to go to work and one family had another party to go to, so we got the gift exchange done first thing. That made the kids very happy. We did the white elephant gift exchange where we became the proud owners of a table top pool table. Thanks to Darric stealing it from Dana.

The kids all got new p.js from Grandma Carter and new blankets and/or pillow bags.

After presents, we ate. We had Grandma Carter rolls and stuff to make sandwiches and lots of other snacks and desserts. Later we played Bingo with the custom Bingo cards I made. Everybody won a time or two, except for Darric. Which is pretty funny, because he's so competitive. Shortly after that the party was over. (but the eating continued)

At 8:00 we turned on "A Christmas Story" and then the kids went to sleep. After leaving rice crispy treats, carrots and Mt Dew on the coffee table for Santa, of course. 

Darric and Dave did some late night assembling and by this time Max had passed on his sickness to Madison. So around 10:00 pm and 4:00 am we had some more sick-kid-clean-up to do.

At 6:00 Mackenzie tried to wake us up, but I made her wait a 1/2 hour. We woke Max up and went out to the living room. Santa left Madi a new bike and Max a tool set. Any time you would ask him what Santa was going to bring him, it was either presents or tools. Mackenzie had a hard time believing in Santa this year, so he hid her camera to teach her a lesson. The first present the girls opened together was the movie HSM2.

I think they were a little excited. We finished opening up presents and then got ready because we had to be up to Jennifer and Dave's for breakfast at 9:00.

I helped make the french toast this morning and both Mackenzie and my Dad had to take a picture of me cooking and Darric made a comment about me being in an apron.
Breakfast was delicious. After we cleaned up we all squeezed into the front room with the presents.

Max was very excited with every gift he opened this year. You would have never known he was with us when we purchased all of his gifts.

Wii were very excited when Mackenzie and Madison opened their gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Quincy was having a good ol' time opening presents too.



Poor Madison still wasn't feeling very well, but she enjoyed opening all of her presents. 

Us grown up girls are pretty spoiled with all the presents we still get from Mom and Dad. And our stockings get filled too.

We had a little intermission until 3:00pm, so we headed over to Darric's parent's house where we knew food had been cooked for the other part of the Carter family. We ate a little bit. And let the kids play.



Tommy gets this big grin on his face every time you hold a camera up to him. And his big brother was sneaking cookies every chance he could get. It's pretty funny to watch how fast this kid can eat sweets.

At 3:00 we headed back to Jennifer and Dave's to eat again and do our big family white elephant gift exchange. We missed Jodie and Matt during this part. The food again was very good. Homemade mac & cheese was just one of the foods I shoved in my mouth. Grandma Dee brought my favorite desserts, her rocky road and haystacks.

 

She brought her brownies too, but those aren't at the top of my list (I think I might be the only one who doesn't favor those).

Our white elephant gift exchange circle was a lot smaller this year. We were without David, Cindy and their kids and Jodie and Matt. And for some reason there were more kids gifts and a lot of travel bags. Darric got some kind of tool and I ended up with Spiderman wall appliques.

In between eating and gifts we were just sitting and visiting. I started teasing Max by calling him his whole name. Max David Carter. He gets so mad. "I not David Carter, I Max." So I told him my whole name, Jamie Dee Carter. He looked a little confused and said, Grandma Dee? If you were there, it was pretty funny.

When we got home we hooked the Wii up and Darric and the girls played. I tried to put together a car garage toy for Max. It was very complicated. There were tons of stickers I had to put on too and half of them have already fallen off.

Now back to the Wii. Madison kicked her Dad's butt. She is the boxing champ in our house. Darric wasn't just being nice and letting her win. (Remember, he's very competitive) He tried again last night and couldn't win. I tried telling Darric before about how we needed a Wii because it would help burn off some calories. After playing for a little while, I could tell he now knew what I was talking about.

So, long story short, we had a very good Christmas, sick kids and all. And yesterday I packed up all the Christmas decorations, because I'm ready to get things back to normal. Now if I can just get all of these left over goodies out of my house without having to eat them.

Comments

[Mandi]

Wow, a busy 24 hours. Sorry the kids were sick, that sucks but all sure do look happy! We have to get together sometime so I can give the kids their gifts. Maybe we can add lunch on or something next week. Brian's parents leave on Sunday, so give me a call when you have a minute. Glad you guys had a great Christmas!

[Melody]

Wow! You had a busy Christmas! I love all your pictures. :)

[Jennifer]

It was one long day... wasn't it? You have some great pictures to remember it by.

Your bingo cards are super cute... I can't believe you didn't share a picture where you can really see them. I think our family will need a set of those this next year!!

Is everyone feeling better now?