The Holidays are Winding Down

Merry Belated Christmas, everyone!! Hope your day was beautiful.

Here at the Holman household, things have been CRAZY! We started the Christmas celebrations last week Sunday when we saw my dad and my extended family on that side. My dad and step-mom always head to Wisconsin for Christmas, so that works out very well for us. I had to work Monday, Tuesday, and until noon on Wednesday, but then Wednesday afternoon, we headed over to my mom's house for our Christmas celebration with her, my step-dad, my brothers and Katelynn. It was loud - always is - but there was limited drama, and for that, I am thankful :)

Yesterday I was SO proud of my boys. Because Rick's and my parents are both divorced, we have 4 Christmases with our parents, and then Christmas with the Lohmans t00 - the Lohmans are our "Other Family". That makes 5, yep - count 'em, 5 - Christmases for our household. We had plans to go to brunch at the Lohmans at 10am yesterday, so I knew the boys weren't going to be able to open their presents at home first thing in the morning. The compromise was that they could play with what Santa brought them - which he wisely didn't wrap - and open up their stockings. Everything else would have to wait until the evening after we got home. Joshua and Logan were AWESOME. I can't imagine it was easy to leave all those presents under the tree - but they didn't fight it at all.

So, Santa and stockings at home, then off to the Lohmans for brunch (prime rib and eggs - YUM!!) and presents there. We stayed for a few hours, then drove up to Rothbury to see Rick's mom and his step-dad. That was really nice - it was just Patti, Dave, my BIL Jamie, and our family. The boys, of course, got loaded up with presents, and loved every minute of it. We stayed there for dinner - swiss steak, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, pumpkin pie - and it was delish! We headed back to Coopersville about 5:45pm and then spent some time with the boys opening our presents to each other. Tomorrow, we'll drive up to Whitehall to see Rick's dad and the Holman Family, and then down to Toledo in January for my extended family on my mom's side. As crazy as the juggling is, I understand how lucky I am to have such a huge family, and I promise, I'm very thankful.

I had to work last night from home, and I'm at work again today, so my house is CHAOS right now. It's a lot stressful, but I'm hoping to get things back in order tonight and tomorrow morning. I'll feel a lot better after that. We were so very blessed with so many great gifts this year that I'm not quite sure where we're going to stick them all :)

Have a blessed weekend!!