Happy Holidays, everyone! My inbox has over 150 messages, because I've only been on once since my birthday (which was Nov. 14th). I went back to work Wednesday after Thanksgiving, and getting back into an 11:00pm-7:00am, 5-6 day shift after being off for four months, and having two new infants and two other kids to keep up with, has made it really hard to get things done and have any me time left. Anyways…

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. Yule started the 21st, and the kids have already worn Josh and I out, wanting us to play with them and the toys they've got to open so far.
This is the first year we've had the money to be able to do anything special for Zoë and Carmine, and since it's Ottö and Chiàra's first Yule, we decided to go all out this time and really surprise the kids.

Timmy and Evan pitched in on the present fund, and we decided not to let the kids know we were doing anything this year. We all wrapped our presents and Josh and I went and got a tree Thursday night after the kids went to sleep.
By the time we wrapped and decorated, we had a total of 96 presents under and around the tree. This is the first year we've been able to afford a real tree, so we got a huge 7ft., that took the four of us 2 hours to decorate.  We literally were up all night.

The kids got up and 7:00am and the look on their faces when they came down was priceless. I kind of felt bad because Zoë started crying after she seen everything. She asked why we done all of this, and was just so surprised. It was just so sweet—she told us we were the coolest parents in the world.  She told Josh, "You're a really great dad. I didn't think Christy was ever gonna let me meet you, but I'm glad I finally did because you're the coolest guy ever."
She gave me a really big hug and told me, "I love living here with you and dad. You've always been more of a mom to me than a stepmom, and I'm glad dad found you."

I cried a little bit too. So far, it's been a really great Yule, and the world didn't end. Merry Christmas, everyone.