Ok, I know I'm awful. I never even got back to the computer to catch up on Christmas. In a nutshell, it was pretty great. Exhausting. But great. I really thought I had gotten ahead of the ball on my wrapping but apparently that wasn't the case since Skippy and I stayed up until after two in the morning getting stuff under the tree.
This whole shopping early thing gets me in trouble. Because I start early, which is great. Then I kind of fall off the wagon (or sleigh) so to speak and by the time I get it all back together I've forgotten what I've bought and I go totally overboard. This year I spent almost an hour looking for a bag of stuff that I had hidden and then forgotten about until about 1:30 in the morning Christmas Eve night.
But all in all, Christmas Eve was a busy but quiet affair. Skippy and I took turns taking the kids out to do some last minute shopping. We helped the kids wrap some gifts. I called my grandparent's house (where I have spent almost every Christmas Eve of my 29 years) and had a mild breakdown when I heard my Mom's voice. And then we had fun sprinting into Safeway at 5:55 that evening because here in middle-of-nowhere Oregon they close the doors EARLY on Christmas Eve and don't open them again until December 26th. And at 5:30 on Christmas eve I realized we had exactly four diapers left and that Safeway was the only place still open and that they closed at six. Not to mention the produce conspiracy where some wayward Safeway employee set me up to bring home parsley instead of cilantro for Skippy's famous tacos -- because *I* know what cilantro looks like dammit.
Then we got home from dinner, gave the kids their new Christmas Eve jammies, put out cookies for Santa and carrots for reindeer, and got the little monkeys into bed. Then we wrapped. And wrapped. And wrapped some more. And I had a large glass of Bailey's Irish Cream and wrapped a little more.
Christmas Day started at 7:30. Not too bad really. I mean, I felt like it was the freaking Armaggeadon after staying up wrapping but really, they could have been up much earlier so I consider myself lucky. The girls were excited. The baby was baffled. Skippy and I were bleary-eyed but ready to do battle with the three thousand twisty ties that evil toy companies use to secure everything into their evil packages.
How is it that it takes less than one hour to UNwrap what it took me four hours TO wrap? How is that fair? Next year I'm wrapping everything in a big frickin' sheet. It'll be like one of those magician tablecloth tricks - TA DA! DONE. Anyway....
Kbear's doctor kit and Banana's Ice Pen My Little Pony were huge Santa presents. Bitty Babies from Nana were a huge hit. Movies from Mom and Dad were greatly appreciated. The Vtech game system from Aunt Carla was very exciting, although they didn't quite understand what it was while it was all still in the box. All in all, it was a fabulous Christmas for kiddos. Poor Chunk opened one present and promptly got vastly overwhelmed by all of the excitement.
In grown-up news, my Skippy did so well this year! Among other treats, I got an iPod (which I have been asking for FOREVER) and an absolutely beautiful Irish cross necklace that he had friends of ours pick up when they went to Ireland this past fall. In keeping with tradition, I also got a new bear for my collection from Big Sky Carvers - we bought our first one together about six years ago and he's given me one every year since. This year it's the "Bear Two Step" and it's significance is that they are doing the "we sold our house and moved to Oregon happy dance." I love it.
And finally once all of the paper and bows and ribbon was stuffed into big black garbage bags and Christmas breakfast was in our bellies, we ran around like crazy little elves cleaning up the house for company. Skippy made the merry Christmas out of steak and chicken tacos (A W Family tradition) and we had two couples over to share dinner with us - it was loud and hot and wonderful to have a house full of friends and the food was rockin'. Snow fell outside all afternoon and it was just a really nice day. And let me just say that I must be an easy girl to please - I think Char and Trav gave me one of my favorite Christmas presents EVER when Trav fixed my garbage disposal! LOL
Before we knew it, it was over. Hard to believe really. Our first Christmas in Oregon was done and ready to be blogged about and filed away in our memory banks.
I'll get to New Year's Eve a little later today and get some pictures up ASAP - right now I have to go - the Chunk is trying to eat his sister's puzzle pieces.
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