Home and some randomness for you

We are home. I know that I haven't posted yet, but today was spent running errands and wrapping Christmas presents.

Yes, you read that right. WRAPPING Christmas presents. We chose not to take our gifts for the kids on vacation but rather to wait until we got back to "do" Christmas. Well, no magic elf came to my house and wrapped the unwrapped presents I had previously purchased for our children.

So, most likely Friday morning, we will kick off 2010 with our own little family Christmas. I'm excited because the Big Kids are just old enough to really get excited and rip into paper and the "babies" get the biggest kick out of the simplest toy.

Speaking of toys. Guess what I got for Christmas this year?....

Sweet Jesus THANK YOU!

Thanks to my amazingly generous parents, tons of photos of my children will be gracing this blog very, very soon. And, hopefully, they will be GOOD photos. I'm even reading the owners manual on the thing.

Dork. I know.

Anyway, our travels were eventful. We spent lots of time riding horses and playing with friends and cousins and in new places. For the drive home Luke and I decided that we would stop and stay with his Dad just outside of Memphis. Then, we decided that we'd drive to Nashville and stop there. Then, when we got to Nashville, we decided to just keep truckin' and we ended up driving all the way through the night.

11.5 hours rather than 16.5 hours. Thankyouverymuch.

Sure, Luke and I were exhausted when we pulled into our garage at 7:00am on Saturday morning. But, the kids all climbed into their respective beds (and cribs) and Luke and I did the same and we all slept until just past 11:00am.

After a 2 hour nap on Sunday, we were all refreshed and feeling like ourselves.

I hope that your Christmases were lovely and that you made many memories while celebrating the birth of Jesus. We will probably never, ever go out of town for Christmas again.

EVER.

It was a long trip and crazy-chaotic and completely exhausting. But, we did it and saw family and now I'm glad we are home.

I'll try to post some photos soon (you know, the ones I've taken with my NEW camera) and hopefully post about some lessons I learned over this Christmas season. They were interesting ones to say the very least. VERY interesting.

I hear Baby Girl coughing and Aaron is finishing up a bath (the big kids are at my parents' house today) and so I'd better go wash and cuddle my little ones while I have the chance.

TEN short weeks until #6's expected appearance...which probably means 12 more weeks for me.

Still TWO MONTHS AWAY. Holy moly. I think I need to nest.

Merry Christmas!

from The Beaver Bunch



That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.

They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,



“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

Luke 2: 10-14