Modified Christmas

How do I put this.....I didn't take Christmas pictures. Erg, sorry. Mommy fail, well sort of. I'll start on December 23rd when the baby came down with a fever. Mr. Sloth and I were up all night with him. Unfortunately on Christmas Eve Mr. Sloth had some work that needed to get done so he was at the office until 1pm. Since I was up all night I slept in a bit which meant that I was seriously behind when finally did wake up. The house was a disaster and the kids were wild. It was not the Christmas Eve we had last year and it is definitely not what I had planned. Well part of the problem is that I didn't plan much this year. Advent kinda just happened, we didn't even have a wreath this year. Our fall was so busy and chaotic that I spent all of Advent just trying to survive. We never even finished decorating. The second week of Advent we bought a tree, but since we were having friends over for dinner that night we just  threw some ornaments on it and called it a day. Mr. Sloth never got around to decorating our banister but I did hang the stockings. Thank goodness Mr. Sloth is in charge of decorating the outside or that never would have happened.

We fell behind with our Jesse Tree. We started late and then started putting two, three ornaments on a day.Then finally gave up all together. Last year we did a Jesse Tree Tea for Christmas Eve brunch, but since we didn't finish the Jesse Tree and Mr. Sloth was working all day anyway, plus baby had been up with a fever two nights in a row, and don't forget I failed to plan it, so we just didn't do it all. Demand just remembered yesterday and is now making me feel guilty about it.

As we were running late for Mass (Surprise, surprise) I insisted we take pictures before we left. So I shoved the kids in front of the tree and yelled said "Smile! Quick! We gotta go!"

Here's a pic of the fab four. Poor baby had a fever from December 23rd all through Christmas and was not his usual cheerful self.

I love Pax's expression in nearly every photo of him. (He's saying cheese)

Great one of Demand. 

The Handsome Prophet Happy.

Miss Party-Over-Here

There's a better one of Pax.

Just after Santa arrived. All his gifts are in gold paper.

Pax digging into his blueberries Christmas morning. The last two years Santa has given the children each their own pint of blueberries.

Yep, that's all the photos I have. Aren't I terrible? I may have failed with photos but I think I did a good job of planning gifts. The children recieved five gifts each. TOTAL. They each recieved books, in fact I stopped counting at a total of 30 books between Santa, us, grandparents, godparents.  The boys recieved some dress up clothes from the Dollar Tree which they loved ; a soldier costume which to them meant St. Michael or St. George and a firemans hat. Happy recieved a wall Hotwheels track which he LOVES. Happy reccived a pop up tent/tunnel, and Demand after two years of asking for Christmas and Birthdays and starting to save her own money (She got up to $50) Santa finally caved and brought her an American Girl doll. For the first time Legos have entered our home. I don't know why we didn't have them before, they are AWESOME!  In addition to only five gifts each (baby only recieved three non-gifts, socks, onsies, and a patron saint book) NO toy had batteries or does anything annoying. Success!!

I did manage to make "North Pole Cupcakes" but we didn't sing Happy Birthday to Jesus until later that night. For the most part the kids didn't get overwhelmed, although there was a little time when Pax just wanted to stop opening gifts . Out of the ordinary to see him overwhelmed. 

So that was our Christmas! Hope yours was lovely and joy filled!