I’m Beautiful Like Me.

Christmas went just the way I’d always dreamed. I’ll summarize the past week briefly and let the pictures following speak for themselves.

On Christmas eve, my dear Aunt Ruby decided to visit. Blech! I called into work and was told I may lose my job because of it, so I spent the better part of the day worrying about that. Buddha had a mild fever for most of the day, as well.

I had conspired with my mom and brother to get the Christmas decorations - originally I hadn’t intended on doing any decorating or gift exchanging, but after the wonderful kindness of my friends the knitters, things changed. I got the box of decorations from my mom on Tuesday when I helped her out at the shop. I managed to get them into the house and hidden without either of the kids being any the wiser. When we returned from some errands on Wednesday with both children, our neighbor intercepted us in the hall to give me a box that had been delivered while we were away. Joy spotted it, but we swiftly carried it to our bedroom and later I managed to convince her that it was the decorations in said box.

My brother, Big Rob had nothing much to do with his evening since his girls were both spending the day with their moms, and since we had planned to go to The Healing Place on Christmas Day, I invited him to spend the night at our place. We made pizza and beer for dinner and then packed into the car to drive around looking at Christmas lights (Buddha’s favorite). When we got home, I surprised the kids with Christmas decorations and our puny-but-lovely Peanuts-style Christmas tree. Joy helped decorate it while Husband prepared sugar cookie dough. As she patiently waited for the dough to chill, she and Big Rob whipped up a double batch of Rice Krispy Treats. Then they cut out sugar cookies and decorated them.

After the girl finally made it to bed, we snuck the gifts out of the bedroom and placed them on Buddha’s table and chairs. We prepped our morning coffee and headed to bed.

In the morning, Joy was a bit confused about the gifts. “Whose are these?” she asked me. Buddha walked right past them! He discovered the (American) football first. That was followed by lots of unwrapping gifts. The boy was confused, I think. Usually, we yell at him for tearing things up but here we all are, encouraging him! They were both pleased with their new goods.

Joy’s family sent her some gifts and my in-laws sent some nice stuff to all of us.

After coffee and breakfast, we went out to the Healing Place for several hours to help out in the kitchen and in whatever way we might be needed. However, there were more helping hands than hands in need, so we didn’t stay as long as we’d planned. We were met with great welcome. Everyone was so kind and gracious. It was quite a lovely experience.

The whole work-worries thing was for naught - they had over-staffed and were dead. I actually did them a favor and saved them a few bucks by not coming in. But Friday and Saturday were insane - I made so much money! But by golly, I worked my ass off for it.

Some nice cards made it in the mail after Christmas, including some money and gift cards for Joy.

Tonight, we went to my mom’s for Christmas dinner. Big Rob brought both his girls and the four of us went. We ate so much turkey, ham, potatoes and stuffing with gravy, asparagus, corn, sweet potatoes and rolls. Afterwards, we exchanged gifts. Mom laughed so hard at the washcloths I made her and swore off ever using them. Both my nieces loved their gifts from us. Mom got Joy Guitar Hero for her DS - she was so excited! She gave my younger niece the board game Cranium and we had so much fun playing it. For us, she gave us gift cards to the Olive Garden which totally rocks ’cause it’s our absolute favorite restaurant.

Overall, it was an amazing week!

Christmas Eve

Christmas

Late Christmas Night… the boy’s been teething and not sleeping well. So we all curled up on the couch and cuddled together. Note the sheep (from Gramma and Grampa) - the kids love ‘em. Husband thinks it’s amusing that his folks gave his son the black sheep.

Christmas Dinner @ Mom’s, playing Cranium