The past week or so has been quite eventful. Five Christmas dinners/parties, one trip to urgent care, two cases of the flu, twelve inches of snow and one rolling baby later (I probably could have worked this into a song...if I had the energy) we are DONE. Like really done. Exhausted laying on the couch can't move kind of done. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. We love our families, we love getting together with them and they love seeing us, but it was too much. Next year we are planning on saying "no" and doing Christmas on our terms. We want to make room for our own traditions. And we'd like to be sane and healthy while we do it.

It all started on Wednesday when my Grandparents arrived from Arizona. We caught up with them at my parent's house and they got to meet Jack for the first time and we got to chat about how cold it was and how nice it is in AZ. Then we all went to my brother in laws parents for dinner.

Nana meets Jack. They became special buds.

I was planning on Thursday being a down day, where we would rest and prepare our selves for the non-stop nights out ahead. Sophia had other plans. She was dancing the "Nutcracker" too vigorously and smashed her wrist on my in-laws coffee table. We spent the afternoon in urgent care, x-rays and all. Fortunately it was not broken, just sprained. She was back to normal in day.

Friday it was back to my parents for our traditional Day of Cookie Baking. In years past all the girls (my sisters and I) have gathered at my mom's house to spend the day baking cookies. We bake the ones that have been a part of Christmas since our childhood: Buckeyes and Sugar Cookies and then we each bring a new recipe. This year was a little more low-key since my sister-in law had just traveled 30 hours from Singapore and my little sister had to work. Plus with so many little ones running around it's much harder to bake, so in between mommy moments we were able to make and decorate a few cookies. All our cookie baking was followed by dinner with my whole family: Grandparents, Mom, Dad Brother, sisters and spouses. Twelve adults and four kids under three in total.

On Saturday we went to Mark's Dad's for dinner and presents. Someone had fun!

On Sunday we spent the evening with Mark's Mom and step-dad's family.

I spent most of Monday prepping Christmas breakfast and getting ready for another night out. Jack also rolled over for the first time!

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It was shaping up to be a great day until 4pm when I suddenly felt feverish. I spent the next four hours on the couch fighting whatever it was that had given me a temperature of 104, while Mark took the kids to his Grampy's house to meet Santa. Thankfully my immune system is strong (I was cheering for it when I was curled up with the chills) and I was able to finish wrapping presents and setting up for Christmas morning. Unfortunately in my feverish delirium I told my husband to take all the cookies to the party and not come back with them. I was a little over-zealous of ridding the house of cookies because I'd been eating them all. When it came time to set out cookies for "Santa" we had none. Good job Mommy! Thankfully Daddy saved the day with a new tradition: pretzel dessert nachos? (Hey, he did what he could with what we had.)

Tuesday morning was an early one for us: at 6am these two cuties woke us up. Both were hungry.

After stockings, breakfast and opening presents we headed to my parents house for more of the same.

It all ended with probably THE most delicious Christmas dinner ever: smoked baby back ribs courtesy of my husband; homemade mac n'cheese with chipotle crumb topping thanks to my Dad; parmesan crusted mash potatoes thanks to my sister; homemade cornbread thanks to my mom and some steamed broccoli thrown in for good measure to "balance out" all the carbs. Ha! Seriously it was AMAZING.

We spent Wednesday and yesterday at home recovering from all our late nights, unfortunately they took more of a toll on us than just fatigue. I had a bout of the flu (again!?!) last night and Sophia got hit with it today. But not before we got out in the snow yesterday afternoon for a little winter woodland adventure.

It's been a crazy week and half. I'm hoping that 2013 is a little less crazy.

How was your holiday? How do you keep things sane and please your family or are the two mutually exclusive?

--Sarah

Our Seven Days of Christmas

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