Some nicer clothes- JoJo.

Our parents made us actually change out of our jammies and put on some nice clothes.

 Well, nice, by our standards, at least.

 Dash totally won.  He was wearing an great blue suit that used to belong to Uncle Adam.

 I put on my go-to pink gown, with some green hair extensions and about 15 ponytail holders around my wrists as bracelets- obviously.

 Look at how nice Sadie looks.  Then look at my dance leotard.

Henry managed to put on some clothes, but he seems to be predispositioned to not being able to keep a shirt tucked in at all.

 These siblings all managed to class it up a bit too.  When ever I saw papa far away from me with his guitar, I'd scream "My papa! My papa!"

Dash took a more direct approach.  And who's going to stop a guy who looks that good?

Christmas with the Coopers- Henry.

Our Christmas with the Seiberts was quiet and relaxed, but when we got down to the Cooper's, there was no time for quiet or relaxation.  (You'll see why soon.)

 Mama got Aunt Ketie's camera and downloaded the pictures she took, since mama didn't take too many.

 Georgie piled her "pi-yo pet"  (pillow pet) on Grandma and set in on snuggling her new "Loopy,"  or LaLaLoopsy Doll.

 While we worked on preparing Christmas dinner, the big kids were entertained by a movie. (Mama and I both watched E.T. for the very first time this Christmas.)

 Dash was a cute as ever in his Dino Christmas sweater.

 While waiting for Christmas supper- kids edition- JoJo occupied herself with a puzzle. 

 And June occupied herself with setting a good example for Dash.

Way to go, June.

Supper time!

 Look at how easy it is to get these two to take a nice picture.

Next, it was adult dinner time.  

 Finally, after waiting ALL DAY, we got to open presents.  It was the best three minutes of the day.

This is about how crazy it all was, except there are normally at least two people crawling over you, yelling "Open this!"

After the chaos, the little cousins took turns cuddling PawPaw.

While the big cousins headed down to the basement to have a sleepover on the futon.  We thought it was all pretty cool.  But June only slept down there once and refused to sleep there again after she couldn't sleep in the middle.  That girl is scared of everything.

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Christmas- Mama.

I've been saying this for close to a year, but I'm really going to try to catch up with this blog.  So here's a long post of Seibert Christmas.

 On Christmas morning, the kids slept in until 8 am.  Unheard of.  Well, unless your mom tells you not to get up early, or else Christmas is cancelled.

But once we were up, the present opening began!

 Georgie enjoyed a goldmine of puzzles with her name on them.

June got a new video game.

After the three minute present frenzy, we made them line up for a picture.  

 June shows off what she still says is her favorite Christmas present- a My Little Pony with a
light-up ball gown.  (I know for certain that Santa got this pony at the thrift store for 69 cents.)

It's a great feeling knowing this is only the first of three Christmases.

 June lined up all of her presents and insisted I take a picture.  If you want to know what this 4 year-old in into these days, here's what she got:  Hello Kitty pajamas, a Magical Horse paper doll set, a Pixar story book, the aforementioned pony, the Brave DVD, a hair chalk set (admittedly, this was really for me), a Leapster princess game, a LEGO friends set, and a playmobil farmer. 

 I got the best presents ever!  Kenny AND Dolly on vinyl.

 Aunt Jenni got me a set of eye makeup, since we always joke about heavy and dark eye makeup, known as the smoky eye.  Turns out, I can do it without even looking in a mirror.

 The next morning, all the cousins were under one roof for Christmas cinnamon rolls.  

CeCe's finally big enough for a hair fountain.   

 Then we tried for a picture of the kids.  

 This one is nice, but where's Georgie?

 What's Aunt Elizabeth doing in this picture anyway?  She's just holding a place until our newest cousin comes next summer!

 After about 5 minutes of pictures, we gave up at any chance of a not silly picture.

 To round out an awesome day, we turned on some Oak Ridge Boys Christmas music and had a square dance in the living room.

 Everyone got in on the fun.  Even Aunt Jenni, who never changed out of her jammies even once.  

Square dancing quickly turned into wiping out and the kids got sent to bed soon after.

Before we left for our next Christmas, Georgie had fun with her oldest cousin, Evie.  It's hard to believe that Evie is big enough to hoist a 2 year old into the air.  Our sweet goddaughter turns 9 next month!  Georgie loved getting tossed and probably wore Evie out with her begging "Again! Again! Again!"

Grandma and Grandpa Seibert's house!- June.

There were rumors about a massive snow storm that was supposed to sweep across the midwest and ruin our plans for going back to Ohio Friday night.  So we threw some clothes in a bag, packed up our presents, and hit the road on Thursday night.  Needless to say, nary a snowflake flew, but we did have the luxury of a quiet day at Grandma and Grandpa's house before the chaos started.

 Mama, in her Christmas bliss, threw together a 4th batch of buckeyes (Christmas spirit!).  Henry decided he wanted to create.  He made a snowman out of pretzels, marshmallows and sesame seeds, then a cracker-peanut butter cross.  I made a unicorn out of pretzels and a chocolate chip.

 Then mama made some awesome cinnamon sugar almonds int he crockpot. 

 We traded out Henry for Tessa for a night.  That guaranteed almost 24 hours of not seeing Tessa and I as they played in the toy room.  We did lure Tessa out just after breakfast to give her some chocolate covered cherries.  

Meanwhile, Georgie decided she's be the baby in mama's stroller.  It was fun until she realized she couldn't get out.  

 Georgie figured out that she could sneak blankie and nukie into the front room with Grandpa for some cuddling.  

 That always turns into some good-natured blankie tickling.

 And watching videos on the internet. 

 After Christmas Mass, we had our traditional Christmas Eve appetizer meal.  

 Tiny summer sausage, cheese and pickles for everyone!

 Who invited this guy?

And that guy? 

 Finally, we set out to get a nice Christmas eve picture.  

 Well...

...I guess this one works.

 We set up our plates for Santa.  Henry even wrote a letter for Santa.

 It reads "Dear Santa, Have we been good this year?  Yes or No circle what you think.  Merry Christmas!!!!  From the Sibert's"

 We also made some reindeer food from oatmeal and glitter glue.  

Later, the grownups played some Parcheesi and almost called off Christmas after papa set up this double roadblock.  It even result in mama changing her Facebook relationship status from "Married" to "It's Complicated."  Such is the high stakes of Parcheesi.