Christmas with the Bloods

Holidays with the Bloods are always exciting. Any time you have 10 kids, 2 parents, 4 spouses, and 3 grandbabies in one house, there's bound to be a bit of insanity. This year we were short two people--Stephen is serving his mission in Spain, and Aaron is in Chile. The rest of us, however, crammed ourselves into the house and tried not to wake each other up with our crying babies.

It was fun to see Seth interacting with baby Megan. He's at the stage where he LOVES other babies (particularly their eyes and mouths), so it was lots of fun to watch them together. Megan is so adorable--she smiles, laughs, and makes little cooing noises all the times. She's also an incredible sleeper, which did NOT rub off onto her cousin. Watching her made me realize that Seth really is a serious baby. He smiles and laughs, but most of the time he is just studying the world around him VERY intently. He is his father's child.

Just before Christmas we woke up one morning to find Scott & Mary's room abandoned. Mary, who was due just afer New Year's, had started having contractions and decided to head back to Charlotte. Although the contractions stopped before they got home, it was a good thing they left. Baby Rebekah made her debut on Christmas Day, about the time her parents had originally planned to head home.

On Christmas Eve we reenacted the Nativity. As the youngest boy, Seth got to play Baby Jesus (which made me Mary and Jon Joseph). He didn't cry during his big performance, but he did give some incredibly manly grunts which were completely unscripted. But, since he is adorable, his fans didn't mind. They still mugged on him as much as ever. We finished the night by singing some carols around the tree. And no, Seth didn't sleep well that night. Or any of the nights we were there (except the one night Jon & I were up late--then he slept until 6am, the punk). My mom just thinks this is such poetic justice--I was a terrible vacationer as a baby.

Christmas Day was nice and relaxing. Wendy and I were the first ones up, thanks to our children. We dressed up our babies in their matching "Baby's 1st Christmas" onesies and snapped away. I love the second picture--Seth is totally grabbing Megan's thigh. She's well on her way to becoming a chunk just like him.

Eventually we got everyone into the living room to open presents (this is harder than it sounds with so many people involved. Getting a game started is even worse). Everyone was quite spoiled--me, included. Dad Blood bought us this fabulous bread machine, and I am SO excited to try it out. Seth was spoiled (again). He especially loved his bear from Grandpa & Grandma Blood.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around, watching each other play on the Wii. It was a lovely Christmas.