Five things for one year...

Merry Christmas!

I hope all was calm and bright in your necks of the woods.

Ours was lovely and truly wonderful.

I get so sentimental about the holidays and enjoy every single second of them once they are here.

We did it up right this year with the girls doing a fair amount of wrapping (they are Daddy's little wrappers) and after one lesson, they both are on their way to being master wrappers.

We had a little glitch in our Christmas Mass plans this year and baby girl did not go with us as she was in bed with a stomach ache.  So, it looked like our traditional before mass photo was just the two of us.

Mine are little taller...

Mass was beautiful and full of crying babies and antsy children. In other words, everything a children's mass should be. However, I am past that age and I think this is our last official children's mass. Midnight Mass for us from now on.

After mass, we went home and found our rallied girl. We took our traditional photos and headed off to two Christmas Eve celebrations. Lovely way to ring in Christmas Day surrounded by your dearest and their dearest. We laughed  a lot and got to ask one of the very last of the believers what Santa was bringing.

What happens when you put the dog in charge of taking the photo

After driving home at 1 in the morning through pea soup fog, we all passed out with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.

Now that we are "older" sleeping in on Christmas is the blessing we enjoy. Nine o'clock found us still in bed. We had to wake up one family member with the promise of hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows and presents.

All in all it was a lovely day. 

Presents, off to Grandma Gayle's (Gigi's) for brunch, then home for a rest and the traditional Christmas enchiladas  and a rousing few games of Farkle.

Steve was in bed by seven and we girls finished the night with The Family Stone and Holiday Inn double feature.

All is calm, all is bright. 

Perfection.