Old Fashioned Christmas and Carriage Ride

The Herd, Ace and I decided to still meet my parents, grandparents, brother, aunt and Miss Judy, who has taught me a lot of things over the years in the way of social graces, even though A) The boys were grouchy and tired from their adventure in the country and lack of sleep/ being at an arts and crafts camp all day B) LLL not feeling well from her vaccinations and teething AND the fact that the dinner began at her usual bedtime C) we knew traffic would be a nightmare .... And yet we pressed on and went, and I am so glad we did. It was a great time of visiting, eating, and semi-subdued kids from being exhausted. One of my favorite waiters made the most incredibly awesome childproof/spill- resistant cups I've ever seen. I'm including a picture of it here. LLL ate her weight in carrots and sweet potatoes.... I hope her little nose doesn't turn orange! And she yelled at everyone who walked by to get their attention, or if I wasn't putting bites if food in her reach quickly enough. Wild, that one is, truly. After eating, the children's got to see Santa again, and I escorted the older three kids on the horse-drawn carriage ride. The Princess giggled with delight the entire ride, and proclaimed that she was "born for this". I guess I should've brought her a Tiara. Butch Cassidy kept pointing out different star constellations and planets in the sky to me and Sundance made shivery sounds under his blanket and kept telling the horse to "get a move on" and something about warp speed. We piled everyone in the Herdmobile (which I have festively decorated with window antlers and a puffy red nose on the grill) and the oldest three were asleep within 5 minutes. Unbeknownst to me, Sundance had planned ahead by packing a pillow and blanket for the 20 minute ride home (see pictures). Sweet exhaustion. I am having so much fun watching them enjoy this stuff and hope they will have great memories.