A very Merry Christmas to you!

This was our first year of living near family at the holidays, and I really enjoyed being able to have more time around Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Cutting out 10+ hours of driving round trip is a wonderful bonus! We even got a white Christmas for our first one in our new house, which was amazing. Unfortunately the weather resulted in lots of ice, wind gusts of 60 mph and church being cancelled all over town on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely family night at home with Matt's parents and Kelli, Kiley and Cooper, so I have no complaints!

I invited everyone over for dinner and we had lasagne, salad, garlic bread and baked Alaska for dessert. (Yep, homemade!) Matt let me take a nap that afternoon (God Bless him!) and when I came out he had set the table, used the fancy silverware, folded cloth napkins, and made the salad. I love my husband! Everyone fought their way over through the weather and we had a nice evening. The kids got to open their Christmas pj's, and slacker mama forgot to get a picture! My sister in law took a few, so I will post hers later. We laid out cookies for Santa, hung stockings and tucked the kids into bed with no problems.

Christmas morning I heard the kids about 7:00, so I got Matt up and we started the video camera. I am surprised every single year at the lack of enthusiasm Meredith shows on Christmas morning. I don't know if it is just because she is not a morning person, or if she just doesn't get it yet or what, but she was so excited leading up to Christmas that we thought surely she would run over to her Santa presents. Nope, for the 2nd year in a row she walked sleepily out, looked around, and didn't dig into her stocking until we pointed it out to her! I have it all on video, as anticlimactic as it was! Kids will surprise you every time I guess! I remember fighting at the top of the stairs as we waited to be allowed down, running through the house elbowing for space as we dashed into the family room and pounced on our Christmas presents when I was a kid. Maybe next year she will care!

We did the Santa thing, and then sorted out all the other presents and opened those in rotation. Meredith was thrilled to get my old American Girls doll, Samantha, and Nathan loves his vacuum cleaner with a passion. We finished after about an hour and a half or so, and I started making brunch because we were having the family over again. Within 5 minutes of finishing with the presents the leg had fallen off of Meredith's doll, and while I was trying to re-attach it, Nathan's vacuum cleaner stopped making noise and he started crying and trying to hand it to me. While all of this was happening, Matt was digging our van out so he could go pick up his parents and Kelli, since they were stranded a mile down the road at their house! I might be the only one who finds this scenario hilarious, but it seemed like vintage Donovan family to me! Matt asked "Why do we bother to try and make Christmas special?" and I responded over the crying children "To make happy family memories like these!" Call us sarcastic or cynical, but we find that having a sense of humor makes parenting much more enjoyable!

Everyone finally made it here for brunch, we went to the in-laws house that afternoon for dinner, and played in the snow. I really missed getting to attend church, but other than that we had a terrific Christmas. I got a new camera from Matt, and he surprised me with the Nativity scene from Willow Tree, which I LOVE. Matt liked his golf club drink dispenser, and I think everyone had a good time, which makes our first Christmas living in Oklahoma a rousing success!