the holidaze

In between Christmas and New Years is a crazy place to be.
My house has not nearly recovered from xmas. The boys room is a disaster. Eric's family goes insane about them,I swear they each got about 30 presents (90% toys) which I believe is too much and I have the smallest house in the world, so it poses more problems than positives.
I took my tree down already. It was too hard with Zach constantly getting into it and throwing tree ornanaments all over the house, plus it took up my whole living room since I insisit on real trees. Mentally, I am still exhausted from the whole weekend. It was non stop on since x-mas eve. We had Dinner at my sis-in laws with all our family and hers and did a small exhance over there, came home and did our exchange with my mom and sis and then stayed up all night putting crap under the tree and we got a late start since Danny wouldnt go to sleep until nearly 11. We woke up and did our thing xmas morning and then immediately went to Eric's parents and spent all day there, because it took that long to open all the gifts. And then we packed up the whole fam and went to Eric's grandparents...which always ends up being my favorite part of the day even though I dread going over.
His grandma owns like 30 acres in the middle of nowhere and has this cabin type house out in the woods that has a trail leading back to it. They plastic the whole thing in and light the 2 wood burning stoves, put up a tree, a whole bunch of tables, fill the whole room with people and a crazy amount of delicious food and we feast and hang out. There are kids everywhere, a huge bonfire in the back, where everyone smokes cigars and drinks beer or egg nog drinks and everyone just hangs out. It ends up being the great end to a perfect day.
I hate tearing the kids away from thier toys but, Eric did it his whole life and I don't think he ever flet slighted.
It was late by the time we got home, nearly 10 and I just about passed out and havent been able to catch up on sleep since.
People have been in and out all weekend and into this week with ramdom gifts for the kids. Friends of ours who recently moved to W.V. stopped by Saturday night and it ended up being a huge reunion when some other friends swung by and we ended up playing UNO the whole night..lol..Danny was in heaven AND he practiced his colors and numbers!
My sis in law is hosting a big new years party tonight. I opted out. I refuse to ask for a babysitter and don't believe it's the right thing to do even if I HAD someone to babysit, considering Andrew's age and inability to sleep for 3 hours straight. So, Eric is going and I'm not and Im ok with it.
I'm looking forward to wrapping up the year at home with my kids, my new book and a pot of herbal tea. This is whast important to me right now and although Im missing hanging out and celebrating..there will be a new year EVERY year and I can catch up later.
Plus. I cant handle no sleep like I use to. Having 3 kids makes it impossible to survive late nights.
Eric and I and the kids drove out to youngstown yesterday to drop off my application for the hygiene program.
It is done.
There is no more I can do, but hope what I did was good enough and wait to find out if I was accepted.
I finished with a 3.4, which pissed me off because I had a 4.0 just last spring semester! Having children in college..I should say..delivery a child while attending college proves to have a negative effect on GPA's...who would have guessed?
Oh well. It is what it is.
And I would like to say, like I always do..that this year was by far the best ever.
Another year of welcoming life, the addition to my already beautiful, happy family. The completion of my pre-req's and moving forward to the next goal of my life, my children's health, my friends support and many other things.
2008 will be hard to top, but somehow I know 2009 will be better.
Happy New Years to all.