Let the festivities begin!

Most of you already know our holidays are crazy - here's a brief rundown from this year:

Payton stayed in EB with Chad's family from Sunday December 19th until we headed back on Wed December 22nd.  Bailey spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa.  Thanks to both of them...the week would have been even more crazy with those two at home!

Wednesday Chad and I both had to work all day (and due to the busy week we had done very little packing).  We pulled out of our drive at 9:00 pm (with no dinner!) and headed north.  We had fast food from Wendys, cranked up the Christmas music, stopped once for gas, and I stayed awake all the way to Statesville....we made it around 2:00...in the morning!  Payton was tucked snug in the bed....Owen was wide awake!  We didn't get very much sleep but we were there and "ready" for the holidays!

Thursday we stayed around Meme and Pawpaw's, did a little wrapping and last minute preparing for Christmas present exchanges.

Thursday we had dinner at Chad's parents with all of Chad's family.  Another fabulous meal with lots of family, fun, and laughs!

Friday was Christmas Eve....my favorite of all holiday days!  We started the day with a wonderful breakfast at Chad's parents.  Then we exchanged gifts with the kids, Chandra and Allen, and Meme and Pawpaw.  This was Owen's first attempt at gifts.  He really enjoyed all the sights and sounds.  

This is where the madness starts....

Friday afternoon we headed to my parents house for Christmas Eve dinner, presents and my church Christmas Eve service.  At my parents house, we have 8 kids under the age of 8...all running wild in my Mom's Martha Stewart style, fully decorated, completely fragile living room....and yet, it is still my favorite time of the year!  We headed to church at 8:30 for Christmas Eve service.  Back to my parents for dessert.  At 10:00, we headed back to EB.  Yes, on the road again!

Back to EB and the kids asleep and tucked into bed.  We slept...briefly!

Santa arrived!  Christmas morning is here!  Owen's first Christmas has arrived!

We woke up, enjoyed Santa's surprises at Meme and Pawpaw's.  Headed to Mawmaw's by 8:00 (actually, we were about 15 minutes late and several of Chad's family members were quick to point that out to us....luckily, I kept quiet about that fact that we are 4 hours from home, had traveled to and from my parents house 1:20 minutes away the night before, had 2 small children...one of which is 6 months old and doesn't sleep and that I am breastfeeding which also takes a little extra time when getting ready in the morning....like I said, who's counting???  Chandra used to be late too...now I understand why :). It is ALL worth it!).  Breakfast was great!  I always look forward to the biscuits and gravy and a second biscuit with strawberry jam....yummy!  We quickly exchanged presents and rushed to stop #2.

Stop # 2 - Chad's uncle's house - more presents, more food, punch, laughs, pictures, cleanup - and back out the door!  It was starting to snow!

Stop # 3 - Back to Meme's to pack up the car.  Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Stop # 4 - This was supposed to be a nice, slow paced, relaxing lunch at Chad's Aunt's house.  Unfortunately, the snow was really starting to fall....so, "slow" turned to inhaled...we both inhaled a plate of food...our anxiety began to grow a little as we saw the snow beginning to stick and accumulate outside knowing that we had a 1 hr 20 min drive ahead of us with our 2 babies in the car.

Trip from EB to SF....white knuckles and silence as we drove past cars off the road and continued to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The closer we got, the more snow on the road.  Finally, we made it and once we arrived...safely....we finally got to enjoy the snow!  It was beautiful!  It did keep us for celebrating Christmas day with my Papaw Joe but we were safe and able to finally slow down and enjoy the day.

Stop # 5 - Grandma and Grandpa's....little did we know we would be stranded til Monday!

We enjoyed Christmas afternoon, Christmas dinner, present opening and more present opening, a mid-opening bath due to extreme poop, breakfast, playing in the snow, and dinner again and more presents before we moved any where else!

Stop # 6 - Papaw's house on Monday (finally!) for a few hours to exchange presents and visit.

Stop # 7 - Charlotte to my Aunt Linda's house to see my Mom's side of the family.  10 kids...under age 14 with my 2 being the youngest by a few years....but it is crazy!  

Back to SF on Monday night and back to Mt. P on Tuesday - we left both Payton and Owen in NC for the rest of the week.  They spent a little time in EB and a little to end the week in SF prior to heading back home, with Grandma and Grandpa on New Year's Eve.

Wow...it was exhausting to type all that (funny, I said "brief" at the top of the page...had no clue this would be so long!)...I don't know how we actually live though it!  But...we do!  Most everyone (except for our family) thinks we're crazy - I've had people at work look at me like I am literally crazy and ask why we do all this.  My response, "We have to!"  Luckily, I don't mean we "have" to in the sense that someone is forcing us to but we "have" to because we would be lost (and incredibly depressed) if we didn't.  We LOVE our families and couldn't imagine being any where else on the days around Christmas.  Again, I wonder how much longer we can keep this up - it was VERY stressful this year but worth it!  I did have a few moments where I did sit back and enjoy it...but that was mainly when we were stranded and I had nothing else to do!  Hopefully we can find a less stressful way to manage next year.