Merry Christmas to all!

Love the Bennett family!

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. It was a whirlwind weekend getting ready to host Christmas Eve dinner at our home, but well worth it. There's nothing better than forgetting about work & responsibilities for a few days to play with the chillies, lounge with family and enjoy good food.

My side of the family came over for dinner and some present fun on Christmas Eve. That meant we had 8 adults plus our 3 chillies in our tiny apartment. We put a big table in the living room and dusted off the nice china for a buffet feast. Tom BBQ'd the turkey (so delicious!), and we ate broccoli salad, fresh rolls, broiled potatoes and sweet potatoes. So many carbs so little time! ;)We opened gifts and enjoyed watching the kids bounce off the walls with delight. They were so excited and so sweet to everyone, including each other! J and TJ even got to see Simon (Dan & Lauren's dog) and play fetch with him in the front yard.

The chillies woke up way too early Christmas morning- 7:30 AM- even after staying up later than usual. It was awesome to watch them get as excited to see other family members open gifts from them as they were opening their own gifts. Dave's family came over in the afternoon to exchange gifts and spend a little time together. We did it right this year! :) Everyone came to our house instead of trecking the chillies all over town. They were so well behaved because of it too. The only place we went was to Great Gram's house for dinner on Christmas night.

J-Bird (6) wrote the cutest letter to "Satu" about wanting a gold hoola-hoop and wishing him a "mairy Christmas." Santa wrote her a letter back saying Hoopy the hoola-hoop elf was sick and couldn't make any hoola-hoops this year (because according to the kid at Toys'R'Us they are a summer thing). Santa knew that J wanted a kitty but that Mom and Dad were allergic to the real thing so he brought her an electronic kitty Giga-pet. She loves that thing. We get hourly reports that Kiki's health is at 93% and that she loves baths, being pet, etc.

TJ (3) helped retell the story of Jesus' birth on Christmas Eve which was a nice surprise. He really does listen at church and home when he's wiggling around and playing. Ben 10 and dinosaurs are his thing this year. Grandpa Dave gave him the Ben 10 watch which "changes him" into 10 different monsters. He hasn't let that thing out of his sight since yesterday. If one needs to locate TJ you just follow the annoying beep-beep beep-beep of his watch. It's fairly amusing to hear some of the names of these monsters fly outta TJ's mouth. Stinkfly, Wildmutt Heatblast, Diamondhead, GhostFreak and Ripjaws come rolling off his tongue like butter. I just shake my head and blame Daddy for getting him hooked.

Coop (20 months) is too young still to get what is really going on. There came a point yesterday when he didn't care to open another wrapped box and was content to play with one of two toys- his Little People farm or cars.

It has also been confirmed this year that Mom and Dad like shopping for toys way too much. Fisher Price made a killing on us this year!

What an awesome Christmas season! We are so blessed with a healthy family, close extended family, and the knowledge that Jesus Christ lives and is our personal Savior.