Christmas 2008

We were super busy this Christmas season, which made us appreciate our second week of relaxing even more. We were also a little unfortunate - a canceled Christmas party, a broken washing machine, a flooded basement (Xmas eve), and a backed up kitchen pipe (New Year's Eve - more flooding). However, although forking out the money for those things was a bummer during the holidays, it helped that we were in good spirits - there's not much that can bring me down during the holidays!

Our Schedule of Events:

1. Thursday before Christmas was Polar Express/pj day at Mackenzie's school

2. Friday school was cancelled but my mom, sister and I still made it downtown to see Mannheim Steamroller in the snowstorm
3. Weather cleared up by Monday but Cam's Brunch with Santa party was still cancelled on anyway (we found out after the kids were all dressed up and we were already there), so it was a fun morning at Chuck E Cheese instead - did you know they open at 9:30am?

4. Tuesday was Christmas with the Beems. Driving in the ice storm took us an extra half hour, but it was worth it. We got to see Uncle John from Chicago and Aunt Aimee was in from FL so she came back with us for a sleepover with Mackenzie - the trundle bed finally got used!5. Wednesday the hour long trek out to Joy and Randy's - everyone had lots of fun and got way too many gifts!

6. Christmas morning! Yea! Cam got a 'real' bike and Mackenzie got an Easy Bake oven (remember?), among way too many other gifts to name. Mooch got a squeaky pig toy that he hasn't put down since then. Cameron started saying the word "later" and used it freely on Christmas morning when we were encouraging him to open more of his gifts - he just wanted to play!

7. The rest of Christmas Day was spent over at The Eberhardt's after nap time - lots more gifts and lots of food. One highlight was our dollar gift exchange - we sure come up with some funny stuff!

8. Out to my Aunt and Uncle's house on Friday - another hour drive - to see cousin Jamie and her family. Little Ella is sure getting cute (she looks a little like me when I was a baby!)

9. Saturday was 'Friends with Kids' day at our house. We were overtaken by three families and their two year olds - they had a blast playing with all of the new toys and us grown ups enjoyed a few drinks and time to catch up. It was weird having a party end by 9:30pm, though!

10. Sunday back to Chuck E Cheese with Aunt Aimee to meet up with a friend of hers - that was Cam's last outing - he made that very clear - then a night of Rock Band with Aimee and Gus (her boyfriend)

11. The rest of the week we did nothing!!! Maybe a few trips out here and there, but we mostly just relaxed, played with the kids, and enjoyed some much deserved family time. I even got to read a super long book (The Life of Edgar Sawtelle - I highly recommend it). Ahhhhh...

12. New Years Eve was spent at home - no babysitter :( Christie and Mike came over for a nice dinner and we played Rock Band til the wee hours of the night. We also had to call out the emergency plumber since our basement was filling with raw sewage. Us Beems like to go out with a bang!