Last minute Christmas - the best kind...

They say the best times we have are often those that are unplanned, and our family is living proof of that theory. For a family that had absolutely NO plans for Christmas, we ended up having one of the best Christmases we can remember. It just sorta fell into place, and from yesterday afternoon until now, the house has been buzzing with the sound of children, Grammie's happy squeals, (thrilled to have all the little kids around for the holiday) and laughter.

For starters, we didn't get dressed all day (well most of us - including myself, didn't). My brother & his family came in pajamas since they are staying in a hotel nearby, and wanted to come as soon as the kids got up, so the kids could open their presents (which were left here since they don't have a tree in the hotel room) from Santa together with Skip.

Sleep bottoms & those sexy boots make for quite the look, Bob!

We never intended not to get dressed, but the later it got, the easier it was NOT to. The kids even played outside in their jammies, winter coats, and rain boots (since the 14+ inches of snow we got last week melted yesterday, leaving the ground sorta kinda muddy.) They played outside for hours, happily running around, playing "pretend stuff" and jumping on the trampoline.

Secondly, we left them do stuff they NEVER would get away with normally:

Olives on the fingers...

Ring side seat at the Chocolate Fountain!

Double dipping in the Fountain at the end of the day...

Third, we did as little cooking as possible. Although we had a huge breakfast of Christmas shaped pancakes, sausages & bacon, I cooked both the sausages & bacon yesterday, so I only had to reheat them today, and then cook the pancakes. Lunch was a huge antipasto, chowder (make yesterday) and a huge party sized casserole from a local Italian Restuarant, purchased yesterday. Dinner was Chinese Take Out.

With little cooking to do, it left time for fun stuff like:

Playing Polly Pockets,

Tattoos,

Teaching a reluctant yet adorable 11-month-old to say Momma instead of Da-Da (mission NOT accomplished!)

Dress Up,

And everyones favorite, trying to learn to whistle through our fingers. (Mission NOT accomplished!)

We also played lots of games (Wii, board games, and just plain silly games) and some naps here and there (kids AND adults). When they left a little while ago, we were all disappointed because it was SUCH a fun day! We are all REALLY sad to see them leave. They'll leave the day after next for home, and we'll spend the next few days running around getting our medicals redone, so we won't see them for awhile. But, hopefully, this summer, we'll get to see them. We'll hopefully watch their three kids so they can go on vacation alone. They offered to reciprocate, but since they both work full-time, that would be hard, and we certainly don't want expect them to spend a vacation week watching our kids (notice I said kids - thinking positive here), but we're hoping they'll let us take their three for the week...

So, bottom line, it one of the best holidays we've had. The day was low-key and go-with-the flow, yet one that is full of memories we know we'll keep for a long, long time. The more I'm thinking about it, I think the day was spent just as it should have been. A day with no stress and no planning yet lots of laughter & love.