parsleys ponderings: Catching up during the Christmas season

Christmas at the Lollar house is always crazy, wonderful and memorable. Christmas Eve we went to The Orchard church and enjoyed the Christmas story being read to over 50 children. We didn't enjoy the Christmas carols being "vamped up" to contemporary sounding music. If it ain't broke, why fix perfection? We then came home, watched a bit of Lord of the Rings The Two Towers and got the boys ready for bed. After completing the mommy and daddy duties, we crawled into bed around 11:00 p.m. Brian and I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to find out that the two older boys had decided to get up around 11:30 and see what Santa had left them. After going through their stockings, seeing the gifts that Santa had left and watching t.v. while eating the sugar treats, they finally went back to bed at around 3:00 a.m. SOOO, Brian and I figured we'd let them sleep until 7:00 and then wake them up. This is the first Christmas morning where I have been able to have all of my coffee, take a shower, read the paper and actually wake up before the boys are slowly staggering out of bed! Needless to say, the boys were dragging by 1:00 p.m. after the excitement of opening the presents had disappaited from their bodies. We went over to my mom's house to celebrate and see a lot of my family members that had gathered. We listened to my dad read another version of the Christmas story, sang Christmas songs (this is a Jones' tradition) and then opened the presents. We then sat down for an amazing dinner and played games the rest of the evening. All in all, it was a spectacular Christmas!! Here are some pics...enjoy!