Update: ...Sorry....AGAIN. It's just taken me a little longer than planned to get back to blogging. I know, I know...it's really becoming a bad habit of mine...blog neglecting. I will try to work on that one, but I have more than my share of self improvement items on my "TO DO" list for 2012 so I'm not sure how much better this blog updating is going to get, but...I will work on it!

Yes...we really did celebrate Christmas at our house this past year. I have pictures to prove it :)

It was a very, very, very early Christmas morning. I'm talking the insanely 3 a.m. kind of Christmas morning. I don't even think Eloy remembers most of it. It's kind of like a foggy dream really. Picture me trying to smile and act excited while my head is throbbing from too much sugar cooking frosting and no sleep, all the while trying to capture the moment in between nudging Eloy to open his eyes so he can pretend to see what the kids were opening. It was a bit crazy. You see...
like I mentioned in the previous post, Remington was very fond of waking up early during Christmas Vacation. TOO early. I think my head had barely hit the pillow Christmas Eve when Remington came to my side of the bed (and why is it that they always come to my side of the bed????) begging for us to wake up. It was only 2:30 a.m. I guess he had forgotten the agreement we had made before tucking the kids in bed that night that we were not going to get up until 5 a.m. Well, pretty soon he was in the living room with the lights on and after discovering that Santa had really come...well it was pretty much over from there. He couldn't go back to sleep and so he enlisted Ember for help. After a while, they managed to wake Brooklyn and then we just really didn't have much of a choice. Yes we are certainly pushovers for sure!

At around 5 a.m. we coaxed the kids into going back to bed for a couple of hours so we would be able to get up and get ready for church at 9 a.m. Not sure if that's what the kids did because all I know is as soon as I had gone back to bed, I was waking up again to get everyone up and ready. Such was the case with our Christmas. Gratefully, we actually made it to church on time and enjoyed a beautiful Christmas program. I enjoyed most of it in the mother's lounge with Autumn, but I'm finding that's actually the nicest place to be if I really want to hear what's being said. And, it's kind of fun trying to match the speakers' voices to the right person. Kind of a game I get to play now that I spend A LOT of time in the lounge these days.

So, if the pictures are a little blurry...you can only guess the photographer was a little blurry eyed herself. Anyhow, here's to Christmas 2011. In the midst of it all, I was and still am so grateful for the childlike frenzied excitement that comes on Christmas morning and really, I can't wait to experience it again next year but I just have one request....just please, please let Christmas morning come AFTER 5 a.m.

Here's the Boy who started it all!

...and his partner in crime!

...not to mention the third little monkey who is game for anything!

And finally, the sweetest little monkey who slept through it all. (I'm so jealous)