I sure hope everyone has had a very happy and special holiday. To those of you who are ailing or have loved ones that are ailing, I hope you recover soon! Being sick is no fun, but being sick over the holidays is the worst.

We have been keeping ourselves rather busy here the past week. The in-laws arrived on Christmas Eve and we've been having a grand 'ol time ever since they arrived here. Truth be told, my SIL and her husband arrived exactly when we expected at 6pm on Wednesday, but the rest of the family driving down from Ohio didn't arrive until just after midnight. After feeding them and socializing and then wrapping presents for the Kiddos, Jen & I didn't get to bed until 4am or so.

But since everyone had a late night, we didn't get a start on unwrapping Christmas presents until around 11am or so. We were probably the last people in Arkansas opening presents that morning. Thank goodness we had some very patient children! But Ariel loved her Kailey American Girl doll and Braden has enjoyed his Razor Scream Machine (aka the newly redesigned "Big Wheel.")

I ended up using one of the ideas I read on my Dollar Stretcher listserv as far as distributing "large", obvious, unwrappable Christmas gifts. The lady who wrote the idea said that one year they were giving their kids bikes for Christmas. Well, if they put the bikes under the tree, the kids would see it first thing & everything else would be ignored or seem trivial. So they made the kids go on a scavenger hunt which eventually led them back to the tree where the bikes would be. I did something similar for Braden, but since he can't read yet, I drew pictures that led him all over the house and into the backyard. When he got back to the tree, the Scream Machine was there but he couldn't seem to make the connection that it was *his*. He kept looking around it for a present that was wrapped. It was only after we told him three or four times that the Scream Machine was his that he finally understood. He was quite happy after that. :)

It definitely has been wonderful having the in-laws here. We hadn't seen Jen's youngest brother for two years since he's been serving a mission in England. He only just returned to the States the day before they arrived in Arkansas. So it was a big reunion for Jen's family down here. We've been enjoying each other's company and seeing her other brother's new baby. Fun has been had by all eating, cooking, playing darts, games, ping pong, and watching movies.

We went as a group and watched "Cheaper by the Dozen" this afternoon. It was a pretty corny movie high on the cheese factor, but it really reminded me how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family of mine own, and how blessed I am to have such great in-laws. You hear about those "dreaded" in-laws all the time, but mine are quite the opposite of that. I'm definitely glad that they came down to spend Christmas with us in Arkansas. To top it off, the weather here has been delightful the past few days with highs close to 60 with mostly sunny skies. The past few times they have visited have been during the dreadful, humid, nearly unbearable summer months so this has been a nice change.

We're looking forward to spending a couple more days with them before they leave. And then we'll have time to spend with my family who should be coming down on Tuesday.

May God Bless each and every one of you and your loved ones as well.