our 1st christmas...

our first christmas has come and gone...and boy, do i feel it!
our 48-hour christmas eve and christmas festivities could have been renamed the parsley family gauntlet!

ben & i both are blessed with some big ole families, ya'll.  while minnie & tully will LOVE having gifts from the masses once they are old enough to appreciate the big family i've birthed them into, it sure does make the holidays interesting!

we shuffled those babies about celebrating everywhere from readyville to christiana to barfield...and anywhere in-between.  they rode like little elves in santa's sleigh and loved every minute.  isn't it funny how resilient little ones are?  parents are dead to the world running on empty and babies are just uber-flexible.

they smiled.  they laughed.  they bounced about in their new toys.  they put on a show that would make dolly parton proud.  now...the great night's sleep we had (10 hours without a peep) on the 23rd, though, has yet to reappear.  so, the fun of christmas did come with a little price tag.

overall, the babies' first christmas was a success.  we had to put our game-faces on, though.  we had learned the hard way at our first holiday go-round that babies make them mighty different.

thanksgiving hit us.....hard.  i don't mind telling you that we didn't enjoy it one bit.  we went into it thinking it would be a breeze full of peace, love, and happiness and we set ourselves up for failure.  that's why we decided to take a different approach to christmas (holiday #2 for the twins).

we decided that it would be work.  it would take more out of us than we had to offer.  it would even hurt a bit like a college hangover in the days that followed.  BUT...these little ones make Jesus' birthday so much more fun....like the party HE intended it to be!

santa's little babies...

gigi and pop pop's xmas gift....

playing around with their new toys...

hanging out after a busy few days!

on her way to get fun toys!!!

tully is ready to ride!!