(Not so) quick Christmas recap

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Well, the big day finally arrived and went off without a hitch!

The kids avoided the naughty list and were visited by Santa himself and his messy reindeer.

The reindeer loved the reindeer food the kids left out for them (oatmeal mixed with sprinkles and glitter) but they made a huge mess! Santa also enjoyed the plate of cookies left for him.

I tortured the kids this year and made them pose for tons of pictures.

They are dying to open their gifts while I make them sit and pose.

I won’t bore you with all the gifts that were given and received, but I want to share two.

This gift is from my inlaws. My mother-in-law scores “Most Creative Wrapping”.

She wrapped a variety of Bath and Body Works stuff to look like a fruit basket. So adorable!

The second gift is one my son made. He wrote on an ornament and wrapped it up for me.

“#1 Mom” on one side…

…and “HoH Rocks” on the other.

Can my son be any sweeter?

We spent Christmas Eve at my In-Laws house. I was insistent on not using the flash AT ALL based on some tutorials I read, and most of my pictures turned out fuzzy. Note to self, sometimes it’s okay to use a flash.

Here’s one of the-self-proclaimed-GEEK and me.

(He bought me a shirt for Christmas that says “I <3 My Geek" and a pair of panties that says “I’m Blogging This.” :))

Here are the rascals dressed in their Christmas Best.

Christmas day afternoon was spent at my parents house with my siblings and 7 wild kids!

Here are most of my sisters (minus my oldest – Natalie who was consoling a crying toddler, and the 10 year old – Rachael)

L to R: Ben (my Geek), Me (Mrs. House of Hepworths), My sister Merideth, her husband Dan, Chad (Lindsey’s boyfriend), and Lindsey my other sister.

Great picture minus Ben’s wonky face! What on earth? He must have blinked at the wrong moment.

Like I said, most of my pictures didn’t turn out thanks to operator error (I was running the camera so that would be ME), but here’s a cute one of my cutie-patootie nephew Ethan and me.

Sunday morning I awoke to this disaster:

What a mess! Christmas was fun, but such a disaster!

After a full day of cleaning, the room is now looking a bit better…

And most of the Christmas decor has made its way to a pile in the {empty} dining room.

The lantern and the Cloches sit lonely and bare…

  
“Please fill us with something pretty! We are lonely!”

The bathroom is de-glitter pinecone-ified

And the only trace of Christmas in the piano room is the tree stand indention in the carpet.

What a wonderful weekend filled with amazing family, yummy food, and perfect gifts.

I’m thankful that this tree didn’t catch on fire:

And I’m thrilled that the Christmas decor is almost all packed away.

Ben and I (but mainly ME!) are going to start painting this living room this week! Eek! I can’t wait.

I’m going to continue to pack away as much stuff as possible and start removing everything from the walls. So far we’ve agreed to paint, but I’m hoping to get a bunch of moulding hung as well.

I hope your holiday was filled with good food and great friends and family!

Stay tuned for a play-by-play of us painting the family room. I’m also hoping to create something (a surprise) to hang on the wall in the piano room, so cross your fingers I get around to that too!

How was your weekend?

Have a great week as you gear up for 2011!