he looked like he had a rash coming on anyway;)

so giving away the binky on christmas eve was pretty much a disaster.

and by disaster i mean that he wouldn't leave the binky with the cookies.

brennan and max were so supportive.

told him what santa left them when they left their binkies.

brennan even put his hand on chase's shoulder.

it was pretty precious.

even when chase threw brennan's hand off of his shoulder and screamed 

"GET AWAAAAAAY FROM MEEEE!!!!"

i laughed inside a little.

and maybe smiled at brennan.

maybe;)

so sean put dean to bed,

read stories to max and brennan,

and i stayed in front of the christmas tree with crying chase,

trying to get him to leave his binkies for santa for 30 minutes.

then finally, after he had screamed in horror that he wanted to keep his binkies,

and me feeling like i was ruining chase's christmas magic,

we all agreed he could go to sleep with it,

and santa would come in and take the binky out of his bed.

and that is just what we did.

i may or may not be using benedryl to help him fall asleep this week without?

he looked like he had a rash coming on anyway;)

a house full of believers {EVE}

on christmas eve 

andrea had us all 

playing games.

really goofy ones.

the ones you can only play with your family.

like putting a peppermint joe-joe on your forehead,

and then trying to get it into your mouth without using your hands.

like you have to scoot it down over your eye,

by opening and closing your mouth in weird ways,

and then down onto your cheek,

sometimes shaking your head back and forth is a good method,

and then ever to slowly getting it into your mouth

without

letting

it

fall

onto

the

floor.

sean beat us all in about 2.5 seconds.

but he has an unfair advantage with his nose.

i guess technically it's not cheating when you're using what yo' mama gave ya.

most of us just dropped our cookie on the floor about a million times,

except for the super competitive folk

who did it over and over and over again.

just to show us how "easy" it really was.

all the while,

andrea and jaren's living room had about 20 of us with our faces to the ceiling

and cookie crumbs on our face,

you know

shaking our heads,

and opening and closing our mouths really big.

i don't think i've ever laughed so hard in my entire life.

after stuffing ourselves with clam dip,

meatballs,

martinellis,

joe-joes,

lemon bread,

rolls,

and everything else good you can think of.

other games:

marshmallow toss into the christmas wreath bowl.

candy cane bolt stacker

{only for the steady hand, sheesh}

tinsel limbo

and of course,

a thralling round of a white elephant gift exchange,

where i walked away with the greatest white elephant gift i've ever managed,

{except for the time when i had sean secure me the amazing mixing bowl and hand made apron--

but that was too classy to really be classified as a "white elephant."}

{marshmallow toss into the christmas wreath bowl.}

the greatest white elephant gift 

i've ever bargained 

and bartered for:

i branded it ours the minute the trading was over. tape too. phew.

then santa showed up to bring all of the kids some lollies and jammies

 

and we called it a night.

or least we ended part 1 of the night.

the part where the kids go to bed,

and santa's helpers begin the real work.

and then we read luke 2

and tucked them all snug into their beds.

there's nothing like having a house full of believers.

magic.