Part III- Rouse Christmas

After a Christmas morning at home we headed to Grammy and Granddaddy's for Rouse family Christmas. We went early to have some time with Jamie, Carl, John and the grandparents before the crew arrived and help out. The boys are very cute together, but B just hasn't quite mastered sharing. John seems very interested in him, but sometimes B isn't as sure. Other times, he plays fine, and I'm sure they'll have great times in another year or so.

It was great to spend some quite prep time together working through the plans and watching the boys, but the party really got going around noon when more people started to arrive. I worked on the traditional chex mix as appetizer time hit. Suzi brought some fun cheese (all safe for me - yippee!!) In amidst the eating we had a gift exchange. The presence of now four little ones ranging from 10 months to 9 years made for so much entertainment. They all seemed very interested in each others presents and played pretty well together. B and Kaedyn are the closest in age and find each other pretty interesting. It was fun to chase them all and crazy to imagine having four of ones own, but I suppose they would be farther appart than these - still, wow.

There were so many tempting starters that I was quite full by the time dinner rolled around about 3:30 (only 1.5 hours late which is actually very good for these doings so we were quite pleased). Brent's parents gave all the ladies red aprons with charms in the midst of the prep which added to the fun and festive atmosphere. I did manage some room for Prime Rib (as how could you not) and luckily B took the lull of eating time as a great opportunity to go nap.

Most people were able to stay around for a couple hours after and we had a wonderful time. It was particularly neat to catch of with Janna and Jamie my mommy buddies and watch the dads chase the kiddos. The boys in particular were definitely tired by the end of the day, but I'm glad they and we got to share it. A full, festive and happy day and we were only maybe half way through our holiday fun!