Where did Christmas go

And just like that Christmas is over. The radios are back to playing normal music, the shelves of Christmas decorations are diminishing quickly in stores and today is just another day. I feel like it's still the beginning of December where the excitement of Christmas is yet to come. Yet, it's all over already. 

Christmas eve went pretty well. We started our evening off at Church with some lovely Christmas tunes and then we were off to my aunt and uncles house. Christmas is pretty laid back with my family. Everyone brings an appetizer to share and we all basically just stand around in the kitchen and eat eat eat. There was lots of good food this year, as usual. The cookie table was more filled than it usually is which I found very nice.....cause I have a major sweet tooth. Once everyone has a full tummy the kiddos opened up their gifts. My nephew and my cousin's boy are the only kiddos so it went by pretty quickly.I think my nephew just likes tearing into the presents and doesn't even realize the gifts he's been given sometimes. It's entertaining to say the least. After the boys were done with their gifts and went to go play with their new toys the adults played the stealing game. Everyone brought a gift and then each person picks a number out of a hat. When your number comes up you can either pick a gift or steal someone elses, no tagbacks, and btw the game can last for 3+ hours...especially when there is "that" gift that everyone wants. It's just a continuous circle of stealing. Now doesn't that sound nice? ;-) There were some very nice gifts, many laughs and a good time had by all. Once that was over it was back to the table for more eats. People started to leave after that or sat around chatting about this that and the other. G and I took off pretty late and got to bed around midnight. We woke up pretty early and then the phone rang. I knew exactly who it was.... my nephew. "when are you coming over?" "it's time to open presents" so we brewed up some coffee, put on some sweat pants and off to my parents we went for Christmas morning. G had made a bfast bake which was so good!! Once again Eli started to rip through the gifts and before he knew it he opened all of his gifts. We got him to take turns here and there but he was just so excited at certain points that he would just open them up. We all received some wonderful gifts and the time spent together is always priceless. The rest of the day was pretty laid back again, which was wonderful. G and I went home to shower, nap and then go back to my parents for early dinner....YUM-O!! As for Sunday G and I took back a few gifts to exchange for other things we needed. Then the cleaning started. I don't know when the tree is coming down and the decorations but picking up the paper remnants and boxes did start. G and I also exchanged a couple of gifts and will do the rest later this week. We always do our own mini Christmas just the two of us and this year will be the last year! G got me a beautiful ring...love love love it!
As for this week..... yet another busy one. I wish I had the vacation time to take off and just things done at home but I don't so I'll have the majority of my day at work and then try to scramble to get things done, run errands, have our mini Christmas, etc etc.... lol.
Not sure who reads my posts but I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends!!