Ho... Ho...

Holy Schmokes! That was a lot of kids today!!

And surprisingly, there were very few disagreements between the children (all 18 of them!), despite the fact that many of them do not see each other very often. Everything ran very smoothly - truth be told, I do not feel like I did very much to host the darn thing!! We ordered pizza in (thanks, Jayne, for taking care of that!) and everyone brought salads, appetizers, even juice & pop!! Heck, they even helped themselves to whatever they needed to prepare what they brought! All we had to do was supply the house! It was great!

The company was awesome too... I don't see many of these girls very often, so it's nice to get together and catch up on our lives - amongst chasing after all the kids - and marvel at how big all the childen have become!

And we had a very special guest!! Santa left his busy workshop for a few hours to trek out to our neck of the woods to see everyone. It's funny how different Connor's and Aili's expressions are:



(oh, and just ignore the 20's flapper style headband... this is why dads aren't given hairstyle duty!)

We set Santa up in a chair by our tree - here are all of the children, except the youngest (9 mos and content in Dad's arms) and the next two youngest, Aili and K., who ran screaming the other way!





You may recognize my little sweetie, M, from an earlier blog post... except he didn't give me a big grin this time! His expression was priceless! He was fine when Dad plopped him on Santa's knee... and then he turned around! He alternated between this face above and a more serene one as he turned from Santa to Dad to Santa... :)

Connor, of course, wasn't shy and scrambled right up on Santa's knee with a long list ready to go.



Earlier, while giving out the other children's presents, Santa asked who hadn't yet written their letter to Santa. Connor's hand SHOT up and when asked why, he said, "Well, I couldn't make up my mind, but I have the Sears wish book - Do you want me to just show you now?" :) He started to get up to do so, but I convinced him that Santa had to finish with his gifts first!

That didn't stop him from running to get it after all the presents had been handed out... :)



Santa saved Aili until last, and even then, she hadn't warmed up to him - despite seeing all of the cool toys he had brought! I brought her up, determined to get a photo of her on his lap, but she clung to me with a strength I hadn't known she possessed! You can tell by the pout that she was not havin' ANY of it! I love Santa's smirk at the camera, very "The Office"-like... :)



Even when I tried to get her closer for a photo, she watched him warily out of the corner of her eye...



So, what do you get when you combine an exciting visit from Santa, new toys and a 100 inch projection screen? Mini couch potatoes!



And I just couldn't resist sharing this one of K... it's almost as if she's looking at all the purses behind her, saying, "Hmmm, so many handbags, so little time..." :) Isn't she just gorgeous!?



Thanks for reading!