Christmas Update

Merry Christmas everyone! This is the first post in a very long time that will have no pictures attached. We are currently without a laptop power cord so we are unable to download pictures to our computer without connecting the actual camera to the desktop and who has time for that. Long story short, we almost burned the house down with a faulty cord a few days before Christmas. Smoke, melting carpet, and sparks means we can't recharge the laptop battery right now. Hopefully the cord will arrive soon and I can update with some photos but until then, here's what's been going on...
Christmas Eve was at my parents house this year and most of my mom's side of the family was in attendance. We even got a visit from Santa Claus (aka my brother Steve). The kids had a good time playing with their cousins and even tried most of the traditional Christmas Eve fare.
On Christmas Day we woke up super early to see what Santa left us under the tree. Katie was running around the house trying to find Santa since she knew he brought her presents at my parents house the night before. It took some convincing and a super-cool new play kitchen to get her to come by the tree and open presents. After a quick breakfast we headed out to church. My mom and other family members sing in the choir and we all enjoyed listening to the singing. The kids even made it through the whole mass thanks to some snack traps filled with Cheerios. After church we headed to my parents house for more gifts and Christmas dinner. My parents have been doing a theme-based meal for the last 10 years or so and this year's theme was Middle Eastern food. My brothers and sister-in-law did most of the prep work and cooking and without a doubt this was the best year yet. Tons of garlic sauce, tahini sauce, hummus, kabobs, and shwarma later we were all stuffed and planning out next years theme which will be Mexican! We hung out there for a while and then headed over to Pat's parents for another round of gifts and food. His family always does a white elephant type exchange and everyone has a blast cracking up at some of the crazy ideas people come up with for gifts. By that time it was way past the trio's bedtime so we headed home with some very cranky 2 year olds.
Sunday we spend the day hanging out at home and my parents came over to see what Santa brought. Pat's sister Kathy who was in from NC also came to stay in the Aunt Kathy bed for a few nights before she had to head back home. We got to go back to Pat's parents and spend some more time with them and his brother Tim and nephew Conner while she was in town as well.
Yesterday Kathy had to head home and my mom underwent some precautionary surgery. My dad was at the hospital forever yesterday so I brought him a snack and went to keep him company for a while. Mom was finally out of recovery and into a room around 9pm last night. They had gotten to the hospital around 10am with surgery at 1pm so needless to say, they both had a very long day. We went to make sure she was okay and settled for the night and then headed for home.
This morning Dad headed back to the hospital to be with her and Mom actually came home this afternoon. She'll be out of commission for a while but we're hopeful that her recovery will go smoothly. Today was also the day that Pat got to pick up his new car. We turned in his Caravan since the lease was up and decided to get something with a little better gas mileage. Even though the new Malibu won't fit 3 car seats, it will hopefully save us some on each fill-up! Well, it's been a very hectic few days. I hope everyone had a great holiday. I'll post pics as soon as I can. Merry Christmas!!