dec. 22-29; a week worthy of a 2 pound weight gain

The holiday break. Well lets be honest, "break" probably isn't the best word for the visit home to Wisconsin during this time of year. Maybe "non-stop eating, partying, holiday chaos", would be the underlying meaning of the holiday on Edgerton Ave. Flying in on the Friday the 21st ended the longest day of my life starting at about 4 a.m. dropping a friend at the airport, going to work the full day at work, and from there...flying home to come straight to my pillow about 1 am. Saturday we celebrated Maralee's birthday with going out to eat, cake, and presents and the three girls...marcia, manda, and I went to see P.S. I love You. Now as a cumulative opinion; we wouldn't see it again, but it had us all crying at some point during the 2 hours. Sunday we had to do our annual caroling. Now this tradition is not one we particularly ever wanted to happen or become a regular thing, but it has. So on one of the coldest nights of the year we bundle up (usually we have some missionaries along to help even out all our girl voices), sing to the neighbors, and drop off some holiday treats. Monday and Tuesday made up our Wilson Christmas...all of the presents, baking, family parties, etc. Wednesday our party continued as the Holladay's flew into Milwaukee International. With all six girls in one zip code we redefine family dynamics. The new level of "fitting everything in" is kicked up to an extreme as we find a way to pull it all together. So now as we have wrapped up all the Christmas events and we get ready for new years.... we take our "vacation" from vacation and are in the living room all watching Hairspray. Some of the greatest moments to recap the break: Our Micah's wish came true when it snowed 9" yesterday and a large snow fort was built in our front yard. Mint ice cream cake and party at the shaw's house. Grocery shopping with Marcia at ALDI's; the grocery store that requires you to bring your own bags and put a quarter in to use a cart. Bribing Micah during family pictures with any toy he wanted in the mall....turns out he was completely satisfied with a 8.00 collector car from Disney's cars...I got lucky. My favorite Christmas gift memories; watching my mom open Manda's quilt she made for her, my crocks and "office collection" from michelle. Shopping with my mom and manda. hitting the after Christmas sale before the sun came up. Racing my mom down the escalator is southridge mall, resulting in my knee needing surgery because of the severe bruising. Playing with Micah's remote control helicopter..my dad's new favorite toy. Trying to find Melissa at noon. Decorating the tree on Christmas eve... Scoring a free flight on the way back to my second favorite place on earth.... So even though through out the week we all had our fair share of comments about the holiday chaos; thinking it could be taken down a notch or two and the intensity that can sometimes over take our home...it's all worth it.