Christmas Eve in Birmingham

We drove down to Birmingham on the 23rd to spend Christmas with Brent's mom, his sister -Cara, her husband - Clay, and their 3 children - Cooper, Cohen, Cenley. We had a 10 1/2 hour drive and the kids did amazingly well. No extra potty breaks, no major breakdowns, nothing.

The next few days were full of fun, memories, and lots of chaos! (6 children, all under 4.5 years old...plus, 3 big dogs!) We had a wonderful time celebrating with family.


We began our festivities on Christmas Eve. Santa came driving through the neighborhood on top of a fire truck! He didn't slow down too much but at least we got a quick peak!


After that, we headed to a "family friendly" church service that wasn't at all family friendly! (they offered no nursery but encouraged you to bring the kids to the service...) By the end of the service, all 6 kids had trickled out into the church lobby. Next time I need to pack each kid a gallon size ziplock of marshmallows, raisins, and goldfish - the sandwich size lasted less than 10 minutes!


After church, the kids made "reindeer food" and sprinkled it all over the yard. Good thing it had gold glitter in it so that the reindeer could see it in the dark. The boys followed Avery around the entire yard.



We fed/bathed/bedded the kids so that the adults could enjoy our dinner - including fresh fried crab claws made by Gammy. Brent read the Christmas story to everyone before the kids hit the sack.


The last event of the night was setting out cookies and milk for Santa. Avery and Griffin had decorated their 2 cookies at a friends house earlier in the week - and had been saving them - good thing Santa likes stale cookies!


More Christmas to follow...