The 12 Facts of Chirstmas

My head is swimming with things I'd like to blog about ... it is also swimming with an obscene amount of mucus. As I sit at my desk, pretending to work, I'm listening to my two precious little girls sing "Silent Night" in harmony while painting their fairy and unicorn canvases they got for Christmas.

fact #1 - The girls and I went to 5 Christmas parties in 16 days, saw Santa Claus 4 times, had 2 school Christmas programs and ate sweets every single day of this month.

Our kids in birth order (from left to right). :)

The girls BFF at school.

A really out of shape Santa came to our house again this year thanks to our special friends Dana! The girls decided he wasn't the real Santa but one of Santa's helpers.  

Getting ready for a Christmas book exchange.

Christmas Teddy Bear Tea

The children's table is impressive to say the least.

The first time EVER Quinn sat on Santa's lap by herself. Sure she was an emotional wreck and had nightmares ... but she did it!

The Santa at the Teddy Bear Tea was great. He was very soft spoken and talked to the girls for a long time. We decided that he was the real Santa.

fact #2 - Hassie Clare and Quinn are officially out of their toddler beds and settled into their awesome bunk beds courtesy of Maema! We purchased the toddler beds for $50 a piece, used them for 3 years and sold them for $25 a piece.

fact #3 - I will smell pretty for all of 2012 thanks to my Christmas gifts. I'm a perfume fanatic if you don't already know this about me.

fact #4 - Elfis (our Elf) turned mischievous this year.... but only on weekend nights. Hmmmm. He rolled the girls playroom. Dumped flour on the counter and made snow angels. He wrote on the bathroom mirror. He went for a ride in Barbie's convertible. Hassie Clare cried when Elfis went back to the North Pole.

fact #5 - Our first born daughter, Ruby, was a bonifide brat during Christmas time. She got into presents, and stockings and dug Hershey kisses out of the trash and consumed them wrapper and all. I'm not sure where this erratic behavior came from. She is a crabby, old, blind lady. The Christmas magic made her feisty and kind of cute. Of course I was not saying that while bathing her attempting to get the poop off her legs from all the diarrhea. TMI .... I know. I just hope we get a few more Christmas's with our fur baby!

fact #6 - I'm having some major anxiety about Jamie's one year anniversary of him almost joining the angels above. I just can't stop thinking about how different this holiday season would have been for our family had things not gone our way last New Years Day. All of the "what ifs" are making me certifiable. It is consuming my thoughts. Maybe it is a lovey, dovey feeling you get around the holidays ... I'm not sure.  And I have GOT to stop watching all the real life medical ER shows on late night TV...I don't think that is helping me any. I'm ready for New Year's Day to come and go without incident and then I'll relax a little .... maybe.

fact #7 - Mae / Maema / Mom / MIL spoils all of us rotten with love and materialistic things.

fact #8 - One of my favorite things this holiday season was spending lots of extra time with my Momma. We had a great time together watching the girls enjoy the magic of Christmas.

The only picture I have of us is me torturing her while trying to get her pretty new earrings in her ear!

fact #9 - Self portraits of Hassie Clare crack me up.

fact #10 - Quinn's OCD habits are testing every fiber of our patience. Especially when it comes to her picking out socks. It took her 68 mins yesterday and lots of tears. But good God that little girl is the sweetest thing ever!

It is obvious by her attire that it is cold outside but look at her feet. Notice anything missing? Sometimes I gotta pick my battles.

fact #11 - Having family gatherings at my house on Christmas Eve are memorable. Especially when I serve the best Bloody Mary's around!

Decorating cookies for Santa. They also made super cute ornaments and reindeer food courtesy of Josie Love.

Sprinkling reindeer food for Rudolph and all his friends.

My sweet niece on her first Christmas.

Jack-A-Poo and his sweet Momma

fact #12 - I "think" my girls understand the true meaning of Christmas.

The girls came up with the idea to get Jesus some balloons for his birthday. They decided on red balloons because they figured red and green are his favorite colors - they stated, "why else would Christmas colors be red and green Momma????"  So they sent a half dozen red balloons up to Jesus for his birthday.