Three Christmases

I am pretty sure I am not the only who just went through multiple Christmases, both a blessing and a curse. Well curse is a bit strong of a word, but seriously- I am exhausted. With the less than ideal weather around here what should have been a two day max experience just ended today, after the last rescheduled family event. Whew. Done. We did have a really great time this year though, Christmas and toddlers were made for each other. The MR received so many new toys, too many really, and he just had a blast going from one thing to the next and being around so much love and attention. We had our own small family Christmas the 24th, spent Christmas morning with BL's family, and then just had our belated Christmas gathering (and traditional tamale feast) with my parents today. Our big gift to MR this year was the Elmo Live doll, which he is in love with and has been from first sight. I have to admit it is a pretty amazing little toy, and most definitely the least annoying noisy toy we have ever bought him. A win for us all. He also got lots of cars, LOTS, and plenty of other very annoying noisy toys which are still residing at Nana and Pa's house (we just didn't have room for it all ;). The load was a little extreme from the mother in law, anyone else have this problem of too many gifts? She means well, but she suffers from too much free time and ready access to a credit card and online shopping. We are definitely setting a limit for next year as things got a bit out of hand this time around. For example, we are now the proud owners of a two hundred dollar dino paperweight. Well, it's actually this but as far as we can tell so far it doesn't do much and it scares the heck out of MR. He wants nothing to do with it. So we will hope to avoid this next year. Now with everything done and celebrations at an end, I need another break just to recover.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday celebrating whatever you do!