This year we stayed in Huntsville for the holidays and had Brandon's family come up and over to celebrate. His parents and Nana surprised us by arriving Saturday morning when we thought they were coming after lunch. It was a very welcome surprise though. Aunt Ame, Uncle Drexel and Cameron arrived later that afternoon and Christopher was so excited to have his cousin here to play with, after the shock of having so many people coming on one day. After fixing dinner we loaded up in the cars and headed off to Santa's Village so the kids could see the real reindeer, fake snow and meet Santa. Christopher was not happy about the beaded wonder, so we didn't make him sit on his lap. He preferred Mrs. Claus' story time and the room full of trains instead. The next morning, Christopher woke up bright and early ready to play, but not everyone felt the same way. After we all showered and gathered back at the house we had an early Christmas and opened up our gifts, to which the kids had more fun than I think we anticipated. They each got a new bike to grow into, but still tried to ride, among many other new toys and games. We actually had to take a break in order to start our Christmas dinner, but we quickly went back to opening gifts again. We had a wonderful meal which was followed by much needed naps. That evening we were going to head to the Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas lights, but got a much later start than planned and once we saw how long the line was to the entrance we turned around and headed home. It was a good thing b/c we got a phone call from "Mrs. Claus" that "Santa" was going to be coming by to visit Christopher any minute so we all waited on the edge of our seats for the knock at the door. Again, Christopher didn't want anything to do with Santa, but happily took the chocolate he was given as a pre-stocking gift. We sent Ame, Drexel and Cameron on their way back home and then all headed to bed looking forward to a good night's sleep. Christmas Eve felt more like the day after Christmas and we just hung around the house, ran a few errands and took more naps before heading to church for the Christmas Eve service. We were all worn out from the previous activities and again called it an early night and I think we were all asleep before our heads hit the pillows. Christmas morning we woke up and Christopher couldn't wait to run out and see what was in the den. We showed him his stocking full of goodies and he had more fun pulling it all out. Didn't take long before he started saying, "more! more!" everytime he reached inside. Brandon and I just laughed. Then he immediately went for the few presents we left under the tree for Christmas morning. It was great! He was most excited about the new Thomas the Train set that he got and wanted it out of the box before we could even get all the paper off of it. We fixed taco soup for lunch and helped Mimi and Papa John load their gifts into the truck and then said goodbye. I think Christopher took one of his longest naps yet that afternoon. As we went for a family walk that afternoon we reflected on all the amazing thing we were given and how incredibly blessed we are. It was definitely an unforgettable Christmas and we could not have asked for more.