Christmas with the Cleaver's

Friday {23rd} we spent lots of time cleaning and organizing our house-giving stuff away & trying to simplify.  Around five we headed to the Cleaver place to have Christmas with them.  Mom C had done an amazing spread of delicious sandwich fixings, salad, & homemade rolls.  Yum!  I took a caramel sticky bundt thing & a veggie pizza.  There was plenty of food & lots of eating going on.

We all visited and enjoyed each other for a while and then Grandma had the kids put on their nativity.  She had sewn a couple new costumes including a sheep & a horse.  Beckham wore the horse for a bit & then the sheep and then screamed for a couple minutes on Mary's {Madelyn} lap because he was so hot.  I grabbed him, undressed him, and he watched the rest from my lap.  Grayson chose not to particpate this year & instead of being frustrated as usual, I just left it up to him and was okay with his decision.  He does not like being the center of attention in any way, and I'm learning to respect that.  He sat beside me and watched raptly as the other kids performed and the story was read.  It was cute-and majorly chaotic-but just right.

Mom had done a treasure hunt for the kids & it was narrated by Yoda! {Morgan can do a perfect Yoda voice}.  Beckham was super excited by hearing her. (:  The kids all followed the clues & were so excited upon finding each of them.  Many had Star Wars references, so Grayson was cute deciphering them in his head.  I love watching him think.  They all got some money & candy at the end and gave Grandma & Grandpa big hugs.  My boys didn't really care for the real money, but ate their chocolate coins up super fast!  Her creativity is always cute.

Mom & Dad had given each family some money at Thanksgiving time to use toward Christmas which was so appreciated and we all drew names to swap gifts as siblings.  I had Dad & Zac had Rosie.  We did a theme and went with foot care/luxury.  Dad is always complaining about being cold & loves warm socks and slippers.  His was filled with manly slippers, thick socks, lotion, clippers, foot massager & LOTS of chocolate.  Hers was filled with nail polish, slippers, cute socks, pedicure kit, massager, etc.  They both seemed to like them.  Mom had Zac's name and gave him 2 jars of homemade salsa, a bag of chips, and a nice workout t-shirt.  Alicia had my name and gave me a book from my wishlist, and 6 books she read & loved that she'd recommended for me.  She knows I LOVE to read {if I can just find the time, anymore!} and it was a perfect gift.

We spent another hour or so just laughing and talking and enjoying.  We all had a wonderful night and are so grateful for the Cleaver clan.  {More pics to come when I get them from Morgan}