Had a wonderful Christmas. I volunteered about two days before Christmas Eve to have David's family come to our house for dinner...provided others brought food too so I wouldn't have to go to the grocery store again. We had over 20 people here but I think it turned out great. I slow cooked a roast for about 13 hours. I baked two loaves of bread (I buy the dough frozen from Krogers, defroast, rise and bake. It tastes homemade). I also made layered enchiladas, a salad with real bacon, croutons and almond slices, and we had about 4 bottles of sparkling juice, plus cokes, ginger ale and water. David's sister cooked a turkey. A friend of hers made Tamales. Cousin of David's made two quiches and two pecan pies. David's mom made candied sweet potatoes and yellow rice. It was quite a feast.
Christmas morning I woke up at 4 a.m.! I was sooo excited this year because this is the first year that Liam has a concept of what is going on. Well it's also the first year we had a Christmas tree and lights and lots of Nativities...two that you can play with. We talked a lot about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even still, thanks to all the hype on t.v. Liam picked up the concept of Santa really quickly. He came to me one afternoon and said "Mommy, we are going to go to sleep and Santa is going to come at midnight and leave us presents and when we wake up we are going to see toys!" Oh well, I guess that's the fun part when you are a kid.
On Christmas morning, I couldn't help but feel like a kid again too. Liam finally woke up at 6. He saw the castle that we made and his face just lit up. His eyes were round, and his mouth hung open. After an hour I ran to get David. Told him he was missing out! 15 minutes later Violet woke up. She didn't want to go into the castle at first. But after a while, she too became enchanted with it.
We (meaning me) started getting very antsy waiting for my brother Connor and his daughter Bria to wake up... they are living with us for a short time while my brother pays off some debt and saves for a house and possibly a car with a/c. David thought we should wait for them. I did too at first. But then got too impatient waiting... I mean I had been up since 4! So finally around 8 I tell Liam he can open two gifts. I happened to choose the gifts my sister Lorraine had sent. I didn't know what they were. They were musical instruments. And they were very instrumental in waking up Connor and Bria...ahha I know, I know... I'm hilarious.
It was a very fun morning. Liam and Violet would open a gift, play with it for at least 15 minutes, sometimes longer... Then Liam would come up to me and say smiling "Is there another present for me mommy?" eyeing his little pile of gifts.
We went to my parents house for our traditional Christmas breakfast. Had a great time visiting with family and seeing my sisters Kileen and Maureen. We also had our first 'annual' gingerbread house contest. I got second place...but not because mine was second best, only because of the way votes worked out. My mom and Maureen's house won. Mine...well I worked on it at 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. on the 23rd... 2 a.m. because I had been in the garage painting the castle. Hopefully I'll do a better job next year.
Then we headed down to David's brother's house for Christmas dinner. I was exhausted and though enjoyed being with his family, waking up at 4 a.m. plus like 3 hours of sleep a night for 4-5 days in a row... well, I kept falling asleep on the couch.
And the Sandcastle that I had bought in September and looked forward to putting together everyday in October... We didn't get it together in time for Christmas, it was too rainy outside. But I put it together on the 27th (Connor helped) and Liam loves it. Violet has been too sick to go outside to play in it. And the real, non-chemically treated, non-dust filled sand I bought that nearly gave David a heart attack when he learned the cost of it (thanks to shipping)... well even he couldn't deny it is beautiful sand. Connor, who thought it was ridiculous to buy it also, after seeing it, he actually suggested that I buy another box to refill it as the sand gets low. Boy did I feel better about buying it.
Still need to download pictures. I am so lazy with pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment