Christmas (Parts 3 & 4)

After spending last weekend with Brian's family, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent celebrating with my immediate and extended family. On Christmas Eve, we met my parents and my brother for a (very) early dinner at Mac's. I realized afterward that this was Charlotte and Jensen's first time having dinner in a restaurant...we eat out for lunch often, but we'd never attempted dinner (mostly due to the fact that we start our bedtime routine at 6:00). It went...okay. Charlotte decided she was not a fan of the high chair about 15 minutes after we were seated, so she spent the rest of the meal with my mom (who, if given the choice between holding Charlotte and eating, would choose holding Charlotte any day)...

And yes, I forgot my camera so the pics were taken with my phone.

And Jensen, while content to stay in his designated seat, was pretty bored. We had ordered them a plain baked potato and were feeding them little bites, but we finally just gave in and let Jensen have the entire potato to play with:

This was at the end of the meal...can you tell that he's just about had it? He was covered in potato, but I really did make an effort to make sure that most of it was on us as opposed to the floor. I really do try not to be a jerk who lets her children run amok in restaurants.

Christmas morning Brian and I got Bailey out of bed before Charlotte and Jensen were up so we could give her her stocking. Although one could definitely make a strong argument for Bailey's name appearing on Santa's "naughty" list this year, we really wanted to continue our tradition of letting her open a stocking filled with delicious treats and fun toys:

Every year, she looks suspiciously at her stocking before tearing into it.

We got Charlotte and Jensen out of bed, fed them their bottles, and hurriedly threw them into the car (still in their PJs) and took them to Grandma and Grandpa's house so we would have time to open gifts before they got grumpy and ready for naps. My parents had already given them their big gifts (the car seats) but they still had stockings full of all kinds of fun stuff to open. I was a terrible, terrible mom and forgot to even get my camera out of my bag until the very end of the gift-opening. I only got one picture of Charlotte and zero of poor Jensen!

Sitting in Grandma's lap...shocking, huh?

Mr. Bear (the world's largest lap dog) had a good time as well.

When the babies got sleepy, we put them down for a nap in my parents' bedroom and enjoyed a little time just hanging out with my parents and my brother. Todd received a deep fryer for Christmas, so he disappeared into the freezing cold garage and reappeared every so often with samplings of fried fare (pickles, fish and cheese!) for us to try. After the babies awoke, we took them home and had a few hours to regroup before packing up and going back to my parents house for dinner with 15 or so members of my dad's side of the family. Charlotte and Jensen got to spend time with their Great-Aunt Nancy and meet some of their second- and third-cousins for the first time. When the fun was over, we put two exhausted, screaming babies in the car and called it a day.

Whew. In the spirit of honesty, I'll go ahead and say it: Christmas with the babies was not quite as magical as I thought it'd be. It was, however, far more exhausting than I thought it would be. Charlotte and Jensen are still too young to do the fun stuff, like count down the days 'til Christmas, put cookies out for Santa and tear into their gifts with excitement (or open their gifts at all, for that matter). It kind of just felt like we were hauling the poor things all over town from event to event and they were clueless as to why. Plus, Brian and I both felt like the family get-togethers came and went without us really getting the chance to actually spend any quality time with anyone, because we were too busy wrangling babies the entire time! Plus, someone gave Charlotte a gift she didn't ask for...a cold. So I guess we're still kinda dealing with the aftermath of all the fun.

All that said, I was thinking back to last Christmas, four months before the babies were born...we had just found out that we were having a boy and a girl, and that both were healthy. We felt so blessed and excited, and we were having the best time sharing the news with our family and friends. It felt surreal that next year at that time, we would be spending Christmas with our two eight-month-olds. Fast-forward a year, and here we are...our family is complete. Even though I would not call Christmas with two infants relaxing, I wouldn't trade our craziness with Charlotte and Jensen for a lifetime of silent nights...and as cliched as it sounds, they are definitely the best gifts we will ever receive.