Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I know this post is a little late to be sending out now, but I'm sure most of you are busy with the same things we are from cleaning your house from all the Christmas decorations, catching up at work, and working off the holiday weight.  Needless to say, we've been busy since we've returned back to Olathe, and we've been fighting off some head colds as well... 

 Our Christmas vacation started on Saturday where my Mom's side of the family came over to celebrate Christmas.  This side of the family is just booming with little children and it almost gets overwhelming when you don't have a child of your own.  My uncle kept saying that my children will also be pulling off the garland from the Christmas tree and throwing ornaments, but I'm not so sure about that.  I hope that we will have a little more control over them, but I guess we will just have to see.  My favorite is still little Maddex, mainly because he is still too young to start talking and he never wants to get away from me holding him. 

We always play "Rob Your Neighbor" or a "White Elephant" gift exchange with this side of the family.  In past years we have received really ugly Christmas candles or used children's toys that we've given away, but this year, it was stressed to spend $5 on a gift and make it something that a person would actually want.  We got some really good little gifts such as a Christmas fleece blanket, gloves, and a ceramic coffee travel mug, all thanks to Greg's rolling of the die.  I'm terrible at rolling sixes.

We went to Church on Sunday, Greg and I finished up some last minute shopping, and then found some time to go running with Mackie before we got ready to go down to Greg's sister's house.  We didn't bring Abby down to Danielle's house and we finally got to see how social her cats were.  They were so friendly!  We played some games and then caught up on some good youtube videos of 2012.  We spent the night down there, and was treated to one of Alex's amazing breakfasts that consists of an open face English muffin with strawberry jelly, a seasoned over easy egg, avocado and drizzled hot sauce on top.  It was delicious!

After talking over breakfast, we got on the subject of not remembering any of the countries and capitals anymore like we used to know in school.  Danielle purchased a flash card game just so she could brush up on her free time, so we got out the cards and make a little game over it.  Mackie and I had plans to go shopping to look for a New Year's Eve dress for her, so I had to start getting ready.  As I was upstairs getting ready, I hear Greg and his brother and sister getting really good at the countries and capitals and laughing and having a good time.  I was thinking how proud their Mom and Dad must be to have children that enjoy playing educational games.

Mackie and I went to the mall and she must have tried on 35 sparkly, sequined dresses to go out in New York in style on New Year's.  She ended up in one that was totally different from the classy gold, silver and black that we tried on all day.  She picked one that was unique in green, blue and black sequins looking like a reptile, in my opinion, so she would be different from the crowd and be in her own style.  I wanted her to send me a picture of her entire outfit, but you get the idea.

As we've become older and now have to share Christmas day with our significant other's families, Christmas Eve has become the Schomburg's family Christmas.  My parents cook a good meal and we open up the present to each other.  We usually play a game as well, but this year we didn't.  My Mom was sick again over the Christmas weekend, so it's never the same when she's feeling under the weather.  We always take a picture in front of the tree every year, and then we do a funny picture.  Greg still doesn't get the hang of the funny pictures, so he always looks confused in the photos.

 I woke up early on Christmas morning to go to Church and then over the Millers to celebrate their Christmas.  We had a really good breakfast and then started opening gifts.  Mrs. Miller made a blanket for Abby out of Greg's old sweatshirts.  The fabrics are so soft, and Abby loves it. 

By the time we finished opening up presents, we didn't have too much time to play games before we had to head over to celebrate Christmas with my Dad's side of the family.  We made it back in time to see the 2 little cousins open up their gifts and play a game.  My other two cousins came over in the evening to continue to play games with us.

The day after Christmas we saw Jessica and Evan who were in town.  We ate lunch at Jessica's parent's house and played more games.  We were really tired from the day before so we weren't all that chatty, but Greg and I have a trip planned to go visit them in Washington DC in a couple weeks, so we knew we would see them again.


My Mom found these jammies for our dogs. 
Abby didn't mind wearing them.

We met Greg's parents for dinner and then went back to their house for more games with Greg's siblings.  We had plans to leave early Thursday morning, but we experiences car troubles with my car towards the end of the break and had to replace the battery on our way out of town.  We went to Sears and had our pets with us.  It took 2 hours for the replacement, and we looked awesome sitting in Sears with Abby and Chase with me in my sweatpants and Greg in his ripped jeans.  At least Abby looked nice enough that some people wanted to pet her.

We're back at home and all I wanted to do with my last few days off was clean, clean, clean.  We put away all our Christmas decorations, but all the floors still need a thorough cleaning, so we are going to accomplish that today.  It was great seeing everyone and we would like to start planning our year ahead with everyone coming up for a visit sometime, so let us know!

PS. I promise we did hang out with the Miller side of the family even though I have no pictures to prove it.  I told Greg that I am going to have to be that creepy camera person always taking pictures from now on and forcing people to smile at times.