Already over?!?!

Can't believe how fast Christmas came and went!! Time is flying by too fast these days, which explains my absence from blogging. The holidays kept me super busy but now I can't believe how it all passed me by.
On December 18th, I went to see It's a Wonderful Life with my mom, Granny and Uncle Joe (who surprised us all by flying in Saturday morning from Honolulu! It was such a great treat to get to spend time with him!)

I stole this picture from Google Images so I hope the copyright police don't come after me. It was a great show, The Port Tobacco Players always put on amazing plays. Their actors are very professional and it's a treat to get to go...especially with the group I went with. It definitely made me feel like my Christmas was beginning!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas at the Romine house. I took Wednesday and Thursday off to prepare, Wednesday was spent cleaning, Thursday was wrapping and Friday I got to enjoy an entire day with my boys!! We baked cookies, watched movies and just spent quality time together. Jackson helped Mommy clean on Wednesday and we got to spend the entire day just the two of us while Bubba was at school and Daddy was working. Daily, Jackson amazes me with his intelligence. He's speaking sentences, showed me his skills last night in counting to ten (no joke...the child counts to ten!), and picks up on things that I didn't realize he would even notice! But enough of my proud Mommy talk...we're focusing on Christmas here!

I went to midnight mass with Mom, my brother Doug, my sister April and her boyfriend Tyler. We all had a hard time keeping our eyes open but it was a beautiful mass. I was surprised so many people showed up! I guess I'm one of the few wimpy folks who is in bed at 8 o'clock! The weird thing is though, on my way home from church all of the sudden I was hit with a second wind. I'm talking WIDE AWAKE. I got home and poor Chris was exhausted waiting up for me. All he wanted to do was go to sleep at that point but I was wired so I talked his ear off until he eventually pooped out on me at about 2:30...I was up until about 3:30.......and then Peyton showed up next to my bed about 4:30. Yikes. He was very patient and sat on our bed, watching TV until about 6:00 when I decided I had to drag my sleepy butt downstairs (I had to reward the often unseen patience in my big boy). We woke Jackson up and headed down to the loot!

You can see above that Peyton is too busy ripping in to presents to focus on the camera. He loved all his gifts but told me this morning his "Mobigo" was his favorite. He hasn't tried out his new bike yet because of this yucky weather.

Jackson is clearly on a high, with bed-head and gift in hand...he's thrilled! (Notice in the picture above, we turned on the "Yule Log" for atmosphere...how I miss my fireplace!)

Jackson's favorite gift was his fake food. He received at least 150 pieces of fake food this Christmas. After it was all opened, he had to take every bit of the next hour tasting each and every plastic piece of goodness. He was NOT letting any real food slip by him so he had to make sure no one was pulling a fast one on him.
Pardon the mess in the picture...my house, which was amazingly clean on Friday night at bedtime became the aftermath of an F-5 tornado after Christmas.

Aaaaand pardon the shot of me in a robe. I apologize, no one should ever have to see that. But my baby boy is adorable.

                                  Jackson surrounded by his fake food again.

After opening presents, we went to my parent's house for breakfast and gift opening. It was such a great time sitting around the breakfast table, all of us and enjoying each others company. I wouldn't trade moments like that for anything in this world.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!!! Happy New Year to you too!!