Oops… I was supposed to write all this down yesterday but somehow that didn’t happen. Time flies when you’re having fun 
So Christmas this year… Well, to start off, only Gillian was really into the Christmas spirit to start with; Liam is still too young to at least explain what his opinion was on the matter, poor Roo felt too miserable to get into it and I let everything get ahead of me…
But then the 24th rolled around and somehow we pulled it back together.
So on the 24th after putting the kids to bed, I sneak into the garage and start opening the boxes containing the trampoline assembly so the kids would have the surprise of a read-to-bounce-on trampoline on Christmas morning. But before I got to the boxes I realized we really do have two huge mice living in the East wall: the previous owner put a window-AC unit in that wall and didn’t seal it all roung leaving enough space for a large squirrel (or a mouse) to find this a very comfy home, plus they chewed a hole in the sheet rock below the unit so they could get inside the garage. I’ll have to take care of that today, but that’s another store…
Soon after I started Ruth’s parents arrive to help with the assembly, which was good because it still took the four of us about two hours to mount the 88 springs, and the side net. Once that was done and we were alone again, we laid out the the Christmas presents after we finished wrapping them, and built the train set so the kids could play with it.
In the morning on the 25th, we got up before the kids (for once) and waited in the living room. When Liam stirred, I got him out and then woke Gillian up. Liam was so groggy… 
Gillian thought it was the coolest thing, this whole present opening deal and plowed through the packages. Both kids’ favorite in the end: the big round bouncy thing in the back yard! Who would have thought
We then skipped church and headed North to spend the rest of the day and possibly the night with family. When we got there, we went right back to opening presents. Gillian was having a blast, Liam on the other hand… seemed a little out of it. In his defense though he had just woken up, in a new place, people shove funny looking boxes in his face… For like an hour, he sat in my lap looking at a set of matchbox cars in their box.
Afterwards, we ate and played games. It was fun, even though Valton and Jared are slightly on the mean side to play with/against as they do it to win at all cost, no matter what the body count is, and not to have fun. But we did anyway. And the kids were so good, the whole time they played with the new toys. And Liam even took a nap, which he usually never does while he’s there!
Now, we still have a big mess in our living room… We still have mice in our wall… But somehow everything feels fresh, renewed. It feels like a new year has begun already. It’s nice