Really?

Yes, really. We spent a good hour of our Christmas Eve in the hospital cafeteria. Not (thankfully) waiting for someone to get out of surgery ... but just for fun. What could possibly be fun in the hospital cafeteria? Well, the onion rings, for one. The big round tables, for another.

Ok, ok. The story is that the kids and I were bored on Christmas Eve. Not just boring bored, but sad bored. I was getting sadder by the quarter hour as the day wore on. That would have been more bearable if there was some distraction ... like the Christmas Eve service that got cancelled. And with the snow and ice on the roads it probably wasn't best to go hang out all evening at my mom's party where all the aunts and uncles were. I did what I often do when I'm on the edge of meltdown. I called Marie. Eric was working at the hospital too. They weren't really doing anything either.

So, we met at the hospital. The kids opened their Christmas Eve gifts.

Then met back up with "the cousins" downstairs, ate french fries, played silly games, laughed. My third favorite part of the evening was the stares we got. Two adults, nine kids, Christmas Eve. You would have thought we were ... odd. Not at all. We just wanted to be a little closer to our dads/husbands on Christmas Eve.

Chris volunteered to stay home 'cause they didn't have enough seatbelts in their snow-worthy car. Awwww. Ever the servant, thinking of others.

I stole all the pictures off Marie's blog 'cause I forgot my camera. Thanks, friend!