Merry Christmas

Well, things are now on the side of happy slopes as opposed to uphill battles. We've made it through Christmas with some great memories. Irene is old enough now to really enjoy the wonder of Christmas. This included leaving Santa homemade cookies (this was a truly impressive process for Momma, BTW) decorated beautifully and a letter to Santa as well with the help of Dadda. I can't tell you how adorable this was. If I can figure out how to upload the movie from my camera to You Tube, I'll post the movie here. It's truly adorable.

I have to say this is the first time ever that I have participated in being Santa to the extent I have. The cookies were amazingly good and the reply from "Santa" had an enormous affect the next morning. The biggest appeal was the picture I got of Irene actually looking saucer-eyed at the cookie plate in amazement that Santa had actually come and brought her a Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer! She had asked for him on Santa's lap at the mall when she went to get her pic taken with Brookie (her buddy). We scrambled for days looking for one until Kerri (Brookie's mom) put us on to the link above. There was quite the issue with that but ultimately, Grammie and Tata came through for us and found it at a Walmart up in their area.

She found her stocking next - stuffed full of goodies. So much so that she was entertained for quite some time before she realized we got to open presents (2pm as a matter of fact) when family showed up. It was truly amazing. OH! She did get to open CandyLand (with Dora) earlier on in the morning and we played 4 rounds of that. :)

After that, we had 11 for dinner that night with all the goodies that go with it - 3 desserts ended up showing up. :) Ultimately I couldn't even have dessert believe it or not. Not because I was stuffed (I wasn't really). I just couldn't look at one more piece of food. :0) It was amazing.

My parents had come in on the 22nd. So they helped to put up a lot of what still needed to be done. My father got the outside rigged up with what he could. My mom helped me inside with all the decorations, the dishes, you name it. We had gone out to dinner Sat night and sunday morning. I cooked Cajun Flank Steak (from cooking light) Sunday night. I then made filet mignon for dinner Christmas Eve night. Mom and Dad tried to convince me that ordering Chinese food was an ok thing. I said no way to that one. My brother later suggested it might have been because they had no good Chinese restaurants in their area, but I chose to think it was because they felt it was too much work :). *shrug* either way we had filet's. Christmas Day breakfast was a Dutch Baby. Lunch was meats spread out on a counter and people making their own sandwiches. Dinner was the traditional turkey spread. :) All were satisfied it appeared and we were happy to have our house back to normal by the end of the evening. Mom was awesome and did a massive portion of the dishes so I didn't have to look at them the next day. And finally,Mom and Dad headed home the 26th.

I've since then been basking in the glow of the peaceful aftermath - doing a few exchanges, getting the dog food that should have been purchased before christmas, but we were able to stretch it. :) Otherwise I've been happily sitting in my chair watching Dark Shadows Collection 13 in bliss. I have to start a new Cross-Stitch piece. I am behind already. I wanted to start making those little Amish quilts cross-stitch minis for each of the teachers for June graduation (Irene goes to Kindergarten next year). I think I have to make 6 by the end. We'll see if I make it. :)

Anyway, that was Christmas in a nutshell. We now contemplate whether to go to Tahoe for New Years. We're still debating. I guess I had better nail Marcus' foot to the floor on that soon. ;)

Off to go see the new Dr. Who Christmas Special. Happy Holidays to all!