Cleanup Christmas Eve

The day started out sedately enough. I watched Natalie as she spread out her huge stash of Silly Bandz all over her bedroom floor so she could "organize" them. Eric wore a few of them. He was especially fascinated with the van-shaped one (from Scooby Doo). He even made car sounds like he was driving the rubber band around.

The two of them then had breakfast, during which Eric started playing with a balloon Natalie and I had gotten him from the grocery store yesterday. He knocked over his sugary cereal bowl. Luckily I had ignored him when he wanted me to pour milk into the bowl, so it was just sugar that got everywhere, not milk and sugar. I sent him to the bathroom to wash his hands while Natalie and I cleaned up the table. She was such a big help even though I had to give her specific initial instructions on the right way to clean the table. In this picture she is cleaning the place mats for me. They're the type of place mat that don't need to be washed which means that you can't just throw them into the washer.

I had just finished vacuuming the area rug under the table when Eric came up to me and said that water was dripping, as he looked towards the bathroom. Great! He had been playing with the water in the bathroom and spilled water all over the counter. Sigh! In between trips to get more towels to clean up the mess, I saw Eric climbing onto the stool with Natalie and watching her as she cleaned up the place mats. He can be such a sweetie, but so mischievous at the same time!

The rest of the day was filled with cleaning up and Patrick getting the steak ready for our evening meal. Natalie and I did take a quick trip to Michael's and to Coldstone Creamery to use my free birthday ice cream coupon. We also went to the Children's Mass at 4pm and we managed to get seats despite getting there "late"--15 minutes before mass started. We came home for dinner.

Dinner was a nice family time. It started out with Patrick and I trying to get the kids to stop talking with their mouths full and it ended up with a lot of laughing and joking around. This is a picture of Alex talking with a crescent roll in his mouth. He was horrified that I took this picture, but not horrified enough to stop talking with his mouth full. Natalie just giggled constantly and Eric was trying to copy his siblings.

We watched a couple of our taped TV shows together. The kids went to bed later than usual, but it was all good. Patrick and I got everything ready for tomorrow morning, and I took photos of everything just now. I love how the lights reflect off the wood floor in the living room. It looks so peaceful now and so different from what I'm sure it will look like tomorrow. I'll be sure to post some pictures of tomorrow's chaos.

Merry Christmas, everyone!