Christmas....

....was awesome at the best parts, and "interesting" at the worst.

....we went to Aaron's parents' house for Christmas Eve, which was relaxing for the most part. It's very neat to see not only the kids opening presents, but their interactions with Aaron's family. You no doubt have read about my dabbling in Christmas Cheer, so the rest of the night was a happy blur! :)

...Christmas morning, Griffin pops into our bed at 6:30, and goes back to sleep. We don't wake up until almost nine o'clock! Which is nice for the most part, but did make my heart beat faster at the thought of being out of the house by ten! But we opened our presents from Santa, and the kidlets loved their presents, which included a Dora flip-out sofa, a Cabbage Patch Doll, a Thomas movie, and a Megaman Gamecube game. They didn't get to enjoy their presents much, though, for then we packed them up in the van and went to southern Indiana.

....Now, I don't like to dish much about my family, so I'll not go into much of it here. Suffice it to say that familial tension runs high these days, and it's shamefully obvious that I'm glad to leave. I hate that, but it's the truth. It pains me to see my dad and stepmom so unhappy. To see the look on my dad's face that his heart is broken about things he can do nothing about. It kills me. To not be able to help in times of need also kills me. Couple this with all the other family dysfunction, and you have a not-so-good time on your hands. I love my family, I really do. But it makes me want to crawl back into my hole (my suburban hole away from them) and pretend that there isn't so much strife in my family. It makes me just think that I have to be the best mom that I can be to make sure that MY kids don't have to feel that they need to run. I'm not a perfect mom, but I hope that my kids know that I love them and hope that they are happy and feel safe in the loving and clean home that Aaron and I are trying to give them.