A very merry Christmas and a sectional couch

I'm going to let the pictures tell most of the story about our wonderful Christmas week, but I would like to point out that Big Brown, our sectional couch, plays a pretty central role. What in the world would we do without that thing? It was jam-packed all week long.

SOMEONE went almost a whole week being held almost 24/7. It was like Thanksgiving all over again. She napped with Aunt Sarah Ellen several times.

And she wasn't the only one who got Sarah Ellen's attention. Nick got to fly like Superman.

Our couch was never empty ... it went from a pretty roomy area for three,

to a crowded space with people sitting on its arms. Even Scout and Amelia were in on the action that evening.

On Christmas Eve, the boys put on their as-yet-unworn Christmas Eve PJs, a tradition several years running.

Amelia had a coordinating set so she could participate, too.

(I regret to inform you that this year's PJs were so well received that the boys wore them for three days straight.)

The boys have gotten much more comfortable holding Amelia and carrying her around, and she fell asleep on Nathaniel's chest on Christmas Eve. I die.

Christmas Eve, just before bed, I told the boys that we'd be opening gifts at 8:00 the next morning, and they were confined to their rooms before that. Guess what. IT WORKED. No kidding.

They opened their stockings first, and then moved on to their gifts. I will tell you this: they each only had about six wrapped gifts to open, and at first they were disappointed.

The way I do Christmas is that I spend about $75 to $100 on the items I put in their stockings. And they don't get any other gifts from us to open. The gifts they open are from my parents, my sister, Grayson's dad and his sister.

This year, my parents got each of them an iPod Touch, and that was so generous I didn't want them to buy the kids anything else. My aunt and uncle gave them a foosball table, so I didn't want them to buy anything else for them, either.

So the boys were kind of flabbergasted at their small piles at 8 a.m. BUT. Once they opened those iPod Touches, they were completely sucked in. They didn't complain at all about the lack of many other gifts. And they've hardly put those things down since.

Happy.

At any rate, it didn't take us that long to open gifts (although we all got some great things), so we were able to move on to lunch prep. I'd prepared all of the casseroles the day before, bought a carrot souffle from a local restaurant, and bought a turkey breast from Honeybaked Hams, so really all we had to do was set up extra tables and put the stuff in the oven. It was actually very laid-back and we didn't have to rush at all. Win!

I made deviled eggs,

Asian Slaw

Cranberry-Apple Bake

Hashbrown Casserole

and heated up the carrot souffle.

We had my mom's side of the family over, and we had a total of 16 people. Nice crowd, not overwhelming for our home.

I set up two card tables at the couch and covered them with a holiday tablecloth, and it worked out fine. Eight in the kitchen, eight in the den. (We don't have a dining room at the moment; we converted it to a playroom a few years ago.)

The last guest left around 4:15, and then we had a quiet night at home, mainly watching the boys enjoy their iPod Touches.

I loaded 33 apps from my phone and 35 songs from my playlist that they like, and they were happy for hours.

Amelia got her meals in, mostly courtesy of my sister and my mom.

And plenty of cuddle time, too, courtesy of the same two people.

And again, the couch was our humble home for all of it.

Christmas night, my sister took some quick shots of Amelia, some of which were hilarious.

And some of which were just plain cute.

They kept me company in the kitchen while I cleaned up ...

... because who doesn't want THIS FACE keeping them company?

Later, we were all back on Big Brown.

I got a few cuddles in with my baby. Side note: Santa brought me an oily T-zone for Christmas.

But he also brought me some big Amelia grins, so I forgive him.

At the end of the night we all pretty much felt like this:

Flat out pooped.

But it was a wonderful holiday, and we thoroughly enjoyed all the time we had with my sister and parents.