Ramblings of a Wife and Mother: Campbell Christmas

For Campbell Christmas this year, Nanna and Papa came to Birmingham to spend Christmas weekend with us. Despite Ethan's temporary handicap, we still all had a very enjoyable Christmas. Since we still only have one working bathroom (still can't afford the $3K to fix the master shower that sprung a leak this spring), Nanna and Papa stayed at a nearby hotel. Their hotel had a small heated pool (with an adjoining hot tub), which turned out to be very useful for burning off Ethan's ample energy combined with his limited mobility. We spent several hours every day at that pool. When we weren't at the hotel pool, we were playing at our house, at church, or eating out at one of several favorite restaurants.

On a side note, I was totally spoiled this Christmas by not having to do any cooking! I was pretty tired from our trip to Florida, so Dad just ended up taking us out to eat every day that they were here. Since they were visiting us, I felt bad about him paying and tried unsuccessfully to beat him to the check/register. In a final attempt, I wrote a check for one meal that he'd already paid for and gave it to Mom to give to him (he wouldn't take it from me). On Christmas morning, I found that check voided inside our Christmas money envelope :) It was really, really nice to eat so well without my financial conscious nagging me the whole time, and it was also really nice, in light of my pregnancy fatigue, to avoid cooking big meals.

For Christmas Eve, we all attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church. It was a very good service, and we all especially enjoyed getting to see/hear Caleb sing a couple of Christmas songs with the Children's Chorus. After the service, we all headed back to our house where Nanna and the boys watched The Polar Express together while Papa and Marcus (secretly) carried in and set up the bunk beds in the boys' bedroom. While the men were setting up, I typed up and hid the clues for the scavenger hunt and rearranged the smaller things in the boys' room. When the room and the movie were done, we put Caleb & Ethan to bed in our bed as a "special treat," said goodnight to Nanna and Papa, and finished up the Christmas Eve preparations (stockings, presents under the tree, etc.).

Christmas morning, the kids were up (as usual) around 6:45. Nanna and Papa arrived from the their hotel just a few minutes after the kids woke up, so we started the festivities with the bunk bed scavenger hunt. They loved their new beds from the first moment, and the new arrangement has been a huge success since then. I've got another post in the works just about the bunk beds, so I'll say more about that later. After the bunk bed hunt, we enjoyed a big Christmas breakfast of bacon, eggs and (Caleb's favorite) biscuits. The boys opened their stocking presents with Nanna and Marcus while Papa and I cooked breakfast. After breakfast, we opened the gifts under the tree. Just like during their "first" Christmas, I was very happy to see their sincere pleasure and gratitude at each gift. (I have a morbid fear of my kids being spoiled, and I am definitely one of those parents who would take a present away in a flash if anything but thankfulness was displayed.)

The rest of our Christmas is pretty well described in the pictures below. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for a very enjoyable weekend!