Happy, happy holidays

Every year I make myself the same promises. Every. Year. I'll shop early. I'll wrap early. I'll pack early! We'll spread things out! I won't stress!

Why do I bother?

Despite my outlandish lack of organization, time or talent, we managed to have quite a fabulous holiday. We spent time with both sets of parents here in NWA before heading to what turned into a big shindig at my grandmother's house. Abby and Ethan were part of a group of 7 children, the oldest aged 6, and Abby was the only girl. It was terrifying. My cousin Kenneth, who is an 18 year old football player and as cool as they come, was practically hiding under the couch. The only one not running for his life was Matt, who lined the kids up like a drill sergeant, barked out orders and coolly observed them scramble to obey. He has a gift. My mom and aunt whipped up a fabulous dinner and we all ate ourselves silly.

Next, AMEN packed up and headed off to Mountain Home. There we watched our kids play (fight) with their cousins and Matt and Patty endured Jacob and I battling it out on countless Connect 4 games. That's right, I said Connect 4. Abby got it for Christmas, and we just started playing one night. Turns out Jacob is a Connect 4 hustler and whipped up on me a few times. I was not about to take that sitting down, though, so I spent the rest of the time improving my own skillz and even hustling the hustler a couple of times. I think our spouses got really, really sick of us.

Speaking of sick, on the day we left, the only person not running a fever was Matt. I had a sinus infection, Abby has strep throat (again) and Ethan was just randomly running a fever to be like us I guess. Poor Matt has been running the whole show for AMEN while I'm slowly getting back on my feet. He is a good man. If I could just get him to do all the Christmas shopping, I'd be set for life.