Oh No, Ho Ho!

Today was the big Christmas party at Jen-Jen's! Since the party started at 3:30, I knew Avery would need to nap at Lolli's so her nice, long nap wouldn't get cut short. Lolli saw this as the perfect opportunity to steal Avery for the day. I enjoyed a nice, relaxing day of cleaning while Avery was gone. Not only did the snow mess up school and party festivities, it also kept my house from getting cleaned. Avery did not nap as long as she should have after missing her morning nap, but I'm thinking the call of nature was the reason for that. I picked her up and we set off for the party. Jennifer had a house full with all the kids she keeps regularly, plus the ones she's keeping now that school is out.

Avery was more interested in loving on Jen-Jen than opening her present. Here she is trying to help with someone else's present, though. Her buddies Jackson and Andrew have their back to the camera, and that's little Livia sitting with her mom.



This isn't even the whole group. Several regulars and several older children are missing, plus quite a few family members that came for the party. Carter and baby Gage, sitting on at the far end of the room, are 2 more regulars.



Avery saw no need in sitting with Santa today! I could tell as soon as he came in that she wasn't sure about the situation. I think it was just too many people and not enough time to take it all in. Here we are walking over to Santa. She did pick her head up to look at him but put it right back down when he reached out to take her. I didn't see any need for tears today.



Avery wanted to spend the whole party loving Jen-Jen. I guess it had been a long time since she had seen her last Wednesday. We are so thankful that Jennifer has opened her home to us and others to provide such great love, values, and fun.



Jennifer always has the best gifts for parents on Christmas and Mother's/Father's Day. Last year we at Christmas we received photo albums showing our child's day at her house. That caused tears for all the moms. This year we got these sweet pillows with our child's picture on it. Looks like Avery thought the Santa hat was so funny! I can hardly get anything done with just Avery, so I can't even imagine how Jennifer gets these projects done with the children she has each day.



Avery and I left the party and headed to Farm Fresh to pick up crab meat. I know I save a lot of money at my local Supercenter, but I certainly do love shopping in a calm, shiny store. We picked up dinner and got home right at Avery's dinner time. She had been reminding me of this on our ride with some fussing that turned to mooing. As I walked in the door I told Ned that I didn't care what I had forgotten, I wasn't going back to the store because I've been three times since Saturday. A few minutes later I realized I was missing something for a dip I wanted to fix tonight.

Ned is at his last city council meeting tonight. Hopefully he'll return soon to take out the dog that's been barking almost two hours. If not, Santa might be getting a yellow lab instead of cookies and Pepsi.