Merry Christmas!!

Levi and his gifts from family and from Santa!
Benjamin with all his gifts. Eden Rose and all her gifts. Santa Claus at our church Christmas party with Ben. And with Levi. And with Ede.

We have had fun making our own family traditions in the last few years. Our own traditions include: Eating Chinese take out for supper on Christmas Eve, setting out milk and cookies for Santa, putting a magic key outside for Santa to use to get inside (since we don't have a chimney), putting on our special Christmas PJ's, reading the book T'was the Night Before Christmas and a story of the birth of Jesus called Room for A Little One. It was an interesting turn of events on Christmas Eve this year. Benjamin ended up getting a really bad cough and congestion so I was up until 11pm giving him respiratory treatments, cough medicine, Vick's vaporub and about a half hour of sitting bundled up outside for the cold night air to help calm his lungs. All of this left Jeff on his own for all things that "require assembly". :o) But thank goodness, Christmas morning didn't come as early as it did last year. The boys woke up first at 6:00 this morning which woke me and Jeff up. We all went into Ede's room to get her out of bed. She started to whine a little but was interrupted with "Santa has come and brought you some presents". She quickly hopped out of bed to see what she had. They all had fun opening up all their gifts from family and friends. We were supposed to go to church this morning but Ben still has a constant cough and they all are sniffing and sneezing. We are blessed with family and friends who we love dearly. And from our family to yours as we think of you today.........Merry Christmas and WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

Guess what we did today.......

We went to a Town Hall with Mitt Romney! So I found out the night before that Mitt Romney was holding a Town Hall at the college campus near Levi's school. I wanted to go but could not find a last minute baby-sitter for my kids. Levi also wanted to go. I decided to brave the elements and take all 3 kids with me. We started at the back of a much smaller room than I had envisioned. Once they opened up the floor to questions, I actually knew one of the guys holding one of the microphones, I pressed my way forward with the kids to ask my question....."With the two political parties being so diametrically opposed in their views of the roll of government.....How would you compromise while standing firm on the principle of small government?" He gave a good but political answer. :o) When he was finished I pressed my way thru the crowd with the kids. Mitt signed my pocket Constitution and took a second to chat with me and take a picture with Levi. He asked Benjamin to join them but Ben did not want to go. I had to bribe Levi for the picture in the first place. When I told him I would pay him $5 he tried to up the anny to $11 after the picture was taken. And as he walked away from taking the picture "You owe me money!" He hasn't actually held me to it yet. I pointed out that he just took a picture with someone who might be the next President of the United States. Hopefully that will satisfy him. I hope they will all remember this experience for the rest of their lives.....I will.

Look-a-like Contest??

Benjamin doing his McCauley Culkin imitation. I thought it was pretty good.