THE ROSS EXPERIENCE: WEEK In REVIEW

What a busy, crazy , gift giving week! It is a bit overwhelming having a Christmas and a birthday to plan. WOW!

It began with the arrival of Chris and Megan and the completion of our dessert making. The girls helped out with the making of 'trash'. What an easy, yummy treat :) We escaped powdered sugar everywhere luckily.

On Christmas Eve, we again had presents extravaganza by Grandma!! The event began with the kids getting all their wonderful loot from Grandma and Aunt Mindy and Uncle David. Madeline's favorite gift was a Baby Alive doll that talks, eats, pees, poops, sings, etc. We think it is a bit creepy looking, but oh so cute! Madeline was an overprotective mother not letting us touch the thing. She actually faced her back to us while she took care of the baby. Too funny. And to think she said that she didn't want a baby this year. Meredith also enjoyed her new baby from Grandma. She did the chokehold on it for the rest of the night. Our traditional no peek chicken dinner was delicious, but was missing our yummy thumbprint cookie dessert :(. We again went to the later, much less crowded mass. At the beginning they asked us to introduce ourselves to everyone around us, and Edwin loudly stated, "NO!!". This of course made the surrounding people laugh and the gentleman in front of me turned around and said, "Now, I WANT to meet this little guy". HAHA. After mass, it was back to Grandma's to open her gifts.

Grandma gave Matt a hoodie as HE REQUESTED, but when he opened it, he didn't not seem enthused at all. We made fun of him for the lackluster response. And then he tried it on, and BOOM he loves it!

The girls were so lucky to receive a personal email from Santa!!! It even revealed their pictures in his book under the "nice" section!!! Madeline was so proud :)

Christmas morning everyone came over for make your own egg mcmuffins, danishes, caramel rolls, etc. Megan ate her traditional Christmas cookie breakfast! We actually had to wake the girls up and Madeline was none to pleased .

Santa brought everything the girls had asked for and more!! I think Edwin's favorite toy was the girls' blocks which he squealed with excitement to knock over! What spoiled little munchkins we have. Madeline did an EXCELLENT job with her school gifts this year. I got a snowman candy jar, Meredith got puzzles, Grandma got a Santa reed diffuser, and most importantly, daddy got a Pittsburgh Pirate hat. She was so excited to give daddy's gift to him!! (the funniest gift went to Papa.... a car scraper).

We finished the day with dinner and presents at Papa and Deb's. They got very nice dolls with great accessories from them. Madeline is enjoying shopping with her doll. After the dinner, we were off to Grandma Mueller's to complete the celebrations. We left again with more gifts, candy, and tired girls. They even had a mini dance party with Edwin and Sarah. Edwin gave up on his shirt at one point! I came home with a jar of chocolate covered peanuts as my prize from Aunt Carol's game.

The next day was our birthday celebration for Meredith and Grandma Audine at our house. We got an awesome Cookie Monster cake!!! Again, Meredith was spoiled with many gifts. On her actual birthday, we asked her where she wanted to eat and she insisted on Perkins. Madeline tried to convince her to go to Salsita's, but she kept to her decision. So funny.