'Twas the night after Christmas and the Mouse was in the House!

When Amy was a little girl, we called her "Mouse." We still do. And one time she gnawed open a package of cheese while I had her in the grocery cart doing food shopping. When I was putting away the groceries I told Dennis that "The Mouse ate the Cheese!" However, at that time we also had a REAL mouse in the house and had set a mousetrap with cheese and he thought I meant we'd caught the rodent!

This Christmas, the Mouse was in the House! And sometimes we call her "Mousemas" which is so Christmas-sy! So Mousemas and Dave and Jack and Macy and Carly came to visit to add to the Christmas cheer. Oh I so looked forward to having them come!

The minute they arrived we put David to work.

Then the cute kids bedded down.

I don't think many people would recognize these little piggies.........

.......unless they had played Pigmania - a strangely fun game that consists of putting the two piglets in the orange can, and rolling them onto the table. You get points depending on how they land - double leaning jowlers, razorbacks, hoofers. Great time!

During our tea party we practiced making that "pop" sound you can make when you pull your finger out of your mouth quickly!

We went downtown to the conference center and it was fun to see how much the kids enjoyed it. These photos in sillouhette are a happy accident! The oldish gentleman who was our guide (not to be confused with the youngish lady that would be ME when I'm the guide) started off by asking the kids if they had ever "stood under a waterfall." I'm going to steal that line!

Then he took us to the fountain and we looked waaaay up at the sculpture.

Amy uses a real camera! No wonder her pictures are always spectacular.

I love this photo!

We had such a beautiful snowfall this Christmas. Pristine, untouched back yard............

..........it was too much for Reagan when they came over to see the Huish clan. She had to run out back and spell her name in the snow.

She also lead the kids in running around while Lauren played the piano!

And Grandma got lots of hugs and squeezes in!

Love it when there's lots of "life" in the house!

The girls made necklaces and they made one just for me too!

The big boys played some pool.

Calvin raided the candy dish!

And then we went on a very spectacular new Christmas light display. It's out in Kearns by the Olympic Ice Oval and covers a few acres. It's all set to music and you go under tunnels of light which I hope Amy got photos of and it exceeded expectations! You stay in your warm car, listen to pulsating music and be bedazzled. I want to go again!

The GIRLS had a clicker and started clicking to count every light they saw. Oh my HECK! Yes, they clicked it 4,864 times.

Eli and Vivian and Calvin stayed over night and slept sprawled out in spectacular sleeping bag splendor, with Jack and Macy and Carly.

Calvin LOVES to read instruction books!

And Jack and Eli LOVE to play Boggle and are good at it!

I think this is such a sweet picture. They're actually reading the Christmas books!

Surrounded by quilts made by Debbie, watching something on my t.v. in the bedroom. I feel kind of wistful about this photo, because it doesn't seem that long ago that the three little girls this size were Lauren, Reagan and Jane!

We spent an evening at Tony and Cindy's house and played a fun game called Q-Bitz. Oh my GOSH! Reagan and Dave were insanely good at it.

You had to replicate the pattern and whoever does it fastest wins.

Group photo replicating the pattern!

And then on their last morning, Macy showed me some exquisite gymnastics moves!

Carly discovered the stash of bears in the closet. She looks like the scene from E.T. in this photo!

It made for a truly fabulous Christmas visit to have them come and add to the holiday spirit! And Macy (and now Carly) always sobs when they leave.  I told her, "Macy, we'll get to see you again in three weeks (because we get to go to Disneyland with them). And she replied with, "Three STINKIN' WEEKS!" Thanks for visiting us Huish kids and mommy and daddy!
Love you all,

Mom