Continuing the recap of the last few weeks.....

We hosted the annual Ganey Family Country Christmas in Wisconsin this year. I’m pretty sure that every one had as much fun as we did. The girls couldn’t wait for the party to start, and Maggie even exclaimed as she waited (not so patiently) “What is WITH these people” To her, the house was clean, the food was ready, SHE was ready, so she could not wait even a minute longer for the guests to arrive. Katherine was happy for the general chaos of the party which created enough distraction that her parents didn’t exactly realize how many cookies she was eating. As I tucked her in to bed that night and asked her how many cookies she had tried, she smiled guiltily and said “Mommy, I don’t even think I could count that high!” She's using the beer cooler as a stage in this picture, cookie in hand.

On Christmas Eve, we were grateful for rain instead of snow. Last year the snow kept our guests from celebrating with us. This year, we pulled out our rowboats and everyone was able to come. We had Italian - pasta, salad, bread, veggies – and it was delicious. It’s always a treat for me to see Chris’ grandparents with the girls. We are so lucky to be able to share those moments. After dinner, Chris’ Mom (Boom Boom) joined us at church, where she sang with Chris for 5pm Mass. Then it was home to leave out a snack for Santa and hurry to bed so he could come. Maggie really enjoyed watching Santa’s progress across the globe thanks to NORAD. She was a little sad that Santa hadn’t arrived in Brazil before she went to bed, but was relieved to check in on Christmas Morning and see that he HAD made it there, as well as across the whole globe.

I was surprised that they slept until 0615 on Christmas, delightfully surprised! And even better, they woke Boom Boom before Mommy and Daddy! After I came down to check, the girls ran downstairs to see what treats Santa had left. Maggie was pretty excited about her Jewelry box (to replace the egg carton that had held her jewels) Katherine loved her ‘Super Why’ Computer, and Abby seemed pleased to eat wrapping paper. Oh, and she loved her new stroller, but maybe not Katherine’s driving skills. The whole family was excited to see that Santa brought us a Wii.

We spent the rest of Christmas traveling to Evanston for more family time. There's never a shortage of laughter when we gather with all of the Geraghtys. It was a wonderful Christmas in every way.