December 22, 2016

(click here for today's pictures)

• We left the house a bit before 9 this morning and gracious we all struggled to get out of the door. It didn't help that Robby and I stayed in the bed cuddled with Whitman for a good while after my alarm had gone off.  We probably wouldn't have jumped out of bed either since we had stayed up until 2 last night-after watching the news, one tv show and then 3 episodes of Friends we both fell asleep until 2. We will do better tonight (sure, it is 11 now and all of the kids except Whitman are awake, dishes are washing, laundry is drying and washing and presents need to be wrapped.)
• The kids grabbed breakfast and ate in the car in the while we drove to the children's library. We knew the crowd was going to be crazy and indeed it was. We were given tickets of the next showing of Craig O'Neil reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas. That was fine, we had a few errands to run before returning.
• Back at the library, we were packed in the auditorium like sardines but it was still good. The kids enjoyed listening to the Grinch. Whitman was wide eyed the entire time. Then we headed downstairs to get green ice cream (which they were out of-we had some for lunch though). They were passing out free books to the kids-my Graham found the book about the governor's mansion that the grandmas have been reading and was so excited to pick it out for his book. We then took our picture with Craig and headed on back to the house.
• At home, the kids had their lunch and ice cream and then they started on chores. When the house was almost in order, I just up and left Robby with everything else to do. Not really, I had a dentist appointment (no cavities for me). He spent most of the afternoon cleaning our filthy kitchen floor. 
• When I made it home, the kids were outside-the boys were digging and the girls were roasting marshmallows over the neighbors burning leaves. Robby and I finished getting everything ready inside and then I rounded up the kids to come in...
• Except we couldn't find Whitman. He had been outside just moments earlier with all of the kids in our yard. The others had just ridden down with the neighbors to take them home so I knew he wasn't down there. He wasn't in the garage and I had just come from inside and he wasn't inside. It was getting dark and panic quickly set in. I had already walked back through the house calling his name twice. 
• I do have on a bright yellow shirt and all of the kids could then easily see me running around the house and they took off riding in different directions in the yard hollering his name. Keaton was just standing on the driveway looking terrified when Campbell called from inside that she found him. We then had to yell to the rest of my lookers that he was found. 
• Whitman had gone inside to go to the bathroom (in Robby's closet) and had closed the office door. A few minutes later, when Graham was getting in the shower he looked at Whitman and said "you scared me to death, Buddy." I agreed and told him that I will live a few less years because of that incident. 
• Just as soon as everyone had showered and dressed again, the Penningtons and McGuires all showed up for our Thursday night Christmas party. We had our leftover chocolate candy from the other night plus a few cookies along with sausage balls, cheese dip and toasted ravioli. Everyone else brought just as much stuff and we had ourselves a smorgasbord of goodies to eat. 
• We ate and were able to talk tonight since the kids all were pretty subdued. The kids did enjoy playing a game of Bingo-Robby had bought prizes for everyone to win and they had a blast. Everyone stayed for a while and when they left, Camryn was able to stay. We let the kids stay up while we cleaned and then we sat down for a bit and still let them stay up. It is after 11:30 now and we are just sending them on to bed! The holidays have begun!