Really, people.

I can't believe nobody reminded me to post about how the Christmas party went. I forgot all about it since I'd written on Facebook already. Sorry. Seriously, people, you need to remind me to post on here. I can't complete a coherent thought with these two and their shenanigans, so you gotta help me out from time to time!

The Friday the Christmas party started Dada and I were setting up tents in the yard. Care Bear comes rushing to the sliding screen door yelling, "Mama! MAMA! Liam has your purple makeup!" While pulling the top of the tent over the supports, I'm thinking, "lavendar mascara. That can't be too bad. Ooh, liquid eyeliner. That would be worse." I head in and find him upstairs with a unibrow. Yes, like Bert from Sesame Street. And a tattoo on his right knee. And purple nail polish all over our sheets!

My brain is thinking, "Carrie, nail polish does NOT count as makeup." And lots of pirate thoughts (you know, the incoherent skulls, lightning bolts, big black clouds, etc.) about how easy it is for 3 year olds to yield to temptation. And where in the heck can I keep nail polish that this kid won't find it. And more pirate thoughts about how we forgot to put the baby gate up to keep the kids out of our not-childproofed bedroom and bathroom.

So I clean him up, Dada makes him pay out of his piggy bank for the damage to the sheets, and you'd think he'd learn to leave nail polish alone...

We go back to party prep, had 56 people in and out of here throughout the weekend, and had way too much food. About 5 people came Friday night but only Muggin and Marmie (that would be my little brother's wife and her mom, for those of you who are trying to keep up with nicknames) camped out here. Most of the crowd came Saturday. We had a pouring rain very early Saturday morning but only the tents got wet and they dried out just fine. We had homemade snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, chocolate brownie cookies, gingersnaps, and chocolate chip cookies with pecans. A friend brought pasta salad and brownies. Another friend lent us huge roaster pans so we had pierogies, meatballs, and macaroni and cheese in those. Another friend smoked a turkey for us and his girlfriend made us cupcakes and a gorgeous, fruit-covered cheesecake. Yet another friend brought us hamburgers and buns, plus we had brats, hot dogs, chicken, and tons more buns, so we grilled, too. There were chips, beer, and pop everywhere. Dada even thought to get cashews!

We had a few couples trickle through on Sunday, but definitely the majority came on Sunday. Slowly, people are realizing that we really do mean we party all weekend. We've decided it was a hit and that we'll do it again in July next year. No set date yet ;)

The kids had a great time pestering the guests, Triskal got lots of belly rubs, and we were blessed to have some first-timers come along with lots of repeat customers. Thanks to everyone who traveled to come bless our home with another good time!