Our First of Many Christmas Parties...

I haven't blogged for a while(if that is the correct term) because of prepairing for and attending our first of many Christmas parties. We were blessed to be able to stay with my sister-in-law and her husband for the weekend. The kids had tons of fun and like always were really spoiled by their Grandma Mary.

The first of the pictures are my dear husband and his brother and sister. The two babies are my brother-in-law's twins, Collin and Hailey. We don't get to see them much, so this was a rare treat to visit with them. My sister-in-law is in the middle and she is the youngest of the three siblings.

The second picture is the collective clan of kids that these three siblings have been blessed by (so far) in their marriages. If you are counting, there are 11 total---five boys and six girls. They are all under the age of 9.

The third and fourth pictures are of the "sleep overs" that the cousins had. Of course the babies only had a mini-nap-time sleepover, but there are four of them in that little nursery. As predicted, when one woke up they all did. As for the big kids, I don't know how much sleep they got. They were up talking most of the night. I hated to shush them too much. I couldn't help but remember the holiday sleepovers with my cousins and that was, well, let's say a long time ago and leave it at that. (I don't want to go showing my age now, do I?)

Our Christmas party plans have just been simplified as of this weekend. We are no longer needing to travel on Christmas. A bit of a disappointment that we are not going to get to see dear Hubby's grandparents, but I am glad that we get to stay home all day after we attend Christmas Mass. This will be a first. The kids should be able to enjoy their gifts a little more by actually playing with them.

An update on our school year---my oldest finished her 3rd grade curriculum about a week ago. We recieved her grades via e-mail and she received straight A's. I am so proud of how hard she worked with the Seton books. They were a little challenging at times, but excellent. We ordered her fourth grade materials and they arrived a few days later. I looked over them this morning and I am excited to get started using these new books. Does that make me crazy? Or am I just a little weird because I like books so much?

My son is now half way through his 2nd grade year. He's a year ahead of his peers, but he still doesn't seem challenged at times. I'm not saying that to brag, but he just seems to be a really hard worker and enjoys school. I am so thankful for that.

Our middle daughter is enjoying our Christmas break. Since I am not doing full time school work with the older two, (just a little review every couple of days), she is getting lots more reading time with Mommy. Thankfully we got some new books for Christmas from Grandma Mary and she is really enjoying those.