Naughty and Nice List

The past 36 hours have been a whirlwind and my rundown is below. First, though, I have added three videos to the blog to help paint a picture of a portion of the fun that we have had this Christmas.

No picture here, just audio of my husband and child snoring sleeping next to me last night at Aunt Ellen's.

Did you feed a turkey on Christmas morning? Talk about a present!

This video makes me laugh - Luke showing his holiday spirit ;)

I love this new LiteBrite maybe more than Luke does right now. He will probably have a fit tomorrow when he wakes and sees that I did a design on it. WORTH IT!

 Christmas Eve started with this sweet face coming to the side of the bed to announce that he had already eaten two Hershey Kisses by climbing into the fridge and finding them. WORTH THIS SMILE!
The rest of the day included the following:

• Play
• Clean a little
• Scrub a surprise pool of dog puke up off the floor
• Worry about leaving Star for our quick trip up north
• Act like a fool because of worry
• Give Luke an awesome bath
• Boss Steve around
• Annoy Steve (remember the act like a fool from above)
• Take care of some plants (they still loved me at this point)
• Freak out over Luke's sudden non-bathed appearance. Hello window crayons all over his face.
• Finally shower and get myself ready to go
• Pack
• Walk Star
• Confirm that family does still love me and that my short bursts of insanity before/during holdays and trips do not permanently harm either husband or son
• HAVE A WONDERFUL VISIT AND LUNCH WITH STEVE'S FAMILY - AWESOME! Luke wrestled with his uncles, got some more Gma Susan snuggles and it was an hour of love!
• Head north
• Enjoy trip - talking with Luke about ships and cars and directions, Steve reads aloud - LOVE THAT - sun shines, Michael Buble sings Jingle Bells, etc...
• Get call from dogsitter mid-trip that Star has slipped her collar and will not go in the house.
• Freak out again over dog - contemplate heading back home - find a way to annoy Steve again
• Continue to be concerned and communicate with dogsitter but are thrilled to ARRIVE IN MONEE AND VISIT WITH FAMILY Luke LOVES his cousins. They are all older and AMAZING with him. Great to have time with everyone even if it is brief.
• Get to bed late and appreciate these two:

 Christmas Eve was not quite magical, but it was certainly MEMORABLE. Plus, who wakes up and gets to feed chickens and turkeys??? Luke did on Christmas morning! We all got to enjoy their amazing eggs for breakfast! Thanks so much Mike and Ellen! We love you :) Next year, we might get a BIG TREE!

 FUN! Star was still outside when we arrived home in the afternoon. She was happy to be back in the house with US, but a little shy about being on camera. She is nuts. But...I was really happy to see her alive and well in the bushes out front when we arrived home.

 Luke fell asleep about 20 minutes from home and took a 4 hour nap. That allowed all of us to rest a bit before we opened presents here. Santa/Rudolph/Goldilocks, etc...did a good job of delivering gifts that Luke has already really enjoyed.

 Blocks for building towers, and a Spiderman toothbrush for cleaning said tower or cars or mommy's shirt or maybe even his teeth! "It has a button" so it is a great gift!

 Luke wanted to take 'baby Violet' to bed with him tonight. We pretended to drive to DC and I brought him the framed photo so he cradled her and took her in for Batman stories. So sweet.

Steve and I can't say enough how much we enjoy and appreciate our families. We got to visit and hug lots of them in the past few days and it has been a pleasure! We are lucky ducks and we feel so thankful for family.