yeah, it's loud

So, we have kicked off 'the kids are home from school' season. {Click HERE to see how we began this 2 week season of life.} I enjoy it, I really do. It just takes me a day or two to increase my capacity for the noise level. By December 26th - I should be quite tolerant. That's after having Christmas with my family - think 3 grown kids, 2 husbands, one fiancee, 6 kids still at home and 4 grandkids, along with my parents, my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. Yeah, it's loud.

Tomorrow begins our Christmas celebration - as, if it hasn't started already, doesn't it last all December? But tomorrow evening we'll let the kids open their gifts from us. There's just a few since their main gift was the re-decorating of their bedrooms.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we will head west to Mitch's parents. His brother, sis-in-law and their 3 children (boys) will meet us there. A full day of partying with this side of the family, then that evening we will continue our journey west to my family's. We'll stay at my Grandparent's that night.

In the morning, we will head to my parent's for our first round of gifts and brunch. Then in the afternoon, back to Grandma's. (That's the one I speak of up above.) Then we'll take our worn out kids (and bodies) to stay at my parent's. We'll head home eventually, sometime on the 26th. We'll try to have lunch with our pastor and his wife while there. We've talked about taking our kids bowling. And I'm thinking after-Christmas clearance sales sound like fun (in a town of less than 200,000 but more than 400). Like I said, we'll head home eventually.

We'll chill the rest of the week until we head to the onething Conference on the 30th. Bringing in the new year with 20,000 others in worship & intercession. Cool.