This is going to be a great week... Last week was crazy between trying to finish up everything for Christmas, wrapping things up at work before vacation and my computer dying. It took reloading my system 6 different times to finally get the issue resolved... resulting in me doing a complete reformat of my system. Luckily, no data was lost. Keeping the four systems in my home up and running is becoming a full-time job.

Santa visited us Thursday morning - Christmas Eve-Eve. We did it then to try and space things out and give us some more breathing room in a time that's typically pretty hectic. We woke up, opened presents and the kids had all day to play with their presents. In the evening we had our annual 'Birthday party for Jesus' and then our church had their Christmas eve-eve service (Not having a building makes doing a christmas eve service tough to schedule). It was a great day overall.

On Friday, we woke up, pulled things together and headed to my parent's house for Christmas #2. I love getting together with my family - but between my 3 siblings, spouses and eight nieces and nephews, it's so high energy the whole time. My mom cooks amazing meals for lunch, dinner and the following breakfast - each meal consisting of at least ten different things, not including dessert. We had something to eat, got dressed for church and took our annual family pictures -which are no small ordeal, especially with my brother jon antagonizing everyone possible. I made the mistake of giving Jon my camera to take picture during parts of it and I ended up with a collection of people's butts and crotches. Thanks Jon.

We went to church that night at my Mom's church, which is a traditional Lutheran church. We've been doing this since I can remember. We take up 3 rows between all of us and it's pretty comical watching all of the kids who range from age 1 - 9. We sing all of the great christmas hymns and have a candle light song at the end, which is awesome. It's so different from Crossroads, but I love it just the same. I have so many great memories of going to church, especially going and sitting with my Uncle Bill (deceased). We'd sing and laugh, all while trying to stay under the radar of my mom and grandma's watchful eyes.

We came home, had a huge meal and the opened some of the presents from the aunts and uncles to the kids, and to our parents. The girls had gone through all of our families pictures and put together a scrapbook chronicling our family all the way from my parent's childhood through now. My mom loved it. I mixed up some of the hurricane mix that I brought back from New Orleans, which threw Dan, Kevin and I for a loop. We hung out, played with the presents and laughed a lot. Dan, Kris and family headed home and the rest of us finally crashed sometime after midnight, ready for an early morning.

We woke up Christmas morning early, with Madeline and Gabe running around and signing some obnoxious Christmas song, but it beat them ringing the bells my Mom's given them in the past years. The kids and grandkids opened presents from my parents and played until about noon. I got to go pick up my Grandma from her aparentment in Haslett. She's old (not sure how old - she'll never tell, but I think it's in the mid 80's). She moves at a snail's pace and is really fragile, but she amazes me at how sharp she is. We had a great conversation on the car ride back about Christmas in the past, my grandpa, my uncle, my kids an my job. It was one of the best parts of my Christmas. Around noon, we loaded up and headed for Christmas #3.

We got to Cathie's parents in Dewitt in the afternoon and were able to exhale after a crazy 24 hours. It's such a different atmosphere than my parents and I really look forward to it. There are only our three kids, my brother-in-law Ed and his wife Stacy, and of course Cathie's Mom and Dad. We opened a ton of presents and had a huge meal with at least 10 desserts. It's such a nice, slow-paced time, We hang out, eat and eat some more. The kids have so much fun, just loving hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and their Aunt and Uncle. By the end of the night, we were beat and headed home. Loading the van becomes an interesting exercise in packing, but I got it done.