Christmas wrap-up

It’s time for the long blog of our Christmas events. Starting on Christmas Eve, where we spent the early part of the evening at Flying J with Daddy while Mom interviewed passing truckers to see what their plans were for Christmas.
I had a nice chat with Darren from Texas. I think he would have kept me, but David and the boys were in the next booth eating their supper.
Afterwards, we left DH to work the rest of his shift while the boys and I settled down to an evening of the traditional Christmas Eve hot chocolate and watching “Nacho Libre” while tracking Santa on the computer.Well, okay, we usually watch “A Christmas Story,” But we wanted to do something a little different this year.
I was settling the boys into bed when DS-8 came to me and told me “my heart hurts, I think I have heart burn.”
He sent me upstairs to get him a Tums, and when I returned he was in the bathroom throwing up his hot chocolate.
Whew, at least it wasn’t something serious.
DH came home at 11 and we spent the next hour helping Santa assemble the big surprise Christmas present, a game table with 15 games including billiards, foosball, basketball, air hockey and table tennis.
It’s a small table, a little less than waist high to the boys, and it was not on their wish list, but Santa figured out it was something boys their age would enjoy while having friends over for a visit.
Somewhere between 1 a.m., when we went to bed and 6 a.m., DS-8 climbed in bed with us. Apparently he had been throwing up again, and came in to sleep with us to calm him down.
Along about 7 a.m. he started climbing out of bed and when I asked him where he was going he answered oh so casually, “I just thought I would wander around the house.”
Ha! Nice try!
We managed to hold him off until about 7:30 a.m. before we had to climb out for the paper ripping festival. And a festival it was!
I was thrilled, and maybe a little guilty, about all the nice things the boys and DH gave me. DS-8 picked out Pepto Bismo pink sheets for the bed, DS-12 selected a pink storage bin for my scrap room, DH gave me a carpet sweeper (I love it, so much easier to haul up and down stairs than the vacuum ~ and it’s great for between vacuum cleaning), and surprised me with a craft knife and some good sewing sissors.
Mom gave everyone in the family a scrap book she has been working through the summer, fall and winter. A few years ago she gave us a book with photographs of our ancestors and our family of origin, (my parents, sisters, and brother).
But this book featured photos of the grandchildren in every family but one. We are still waiting for her to finish the pages for Hillbilly sister, because she was delayed getting the photos sent out due to some health issues with her husband.
I LOVE the book. She used pages made by me, my sister-in-law and my niece as well as pages she put together. It is absolutely lovely and reminds me once again of one of the core reasons for my scrapping hobby. Photos are so wonderful. I love the way they capture a slice of history.
We bought a smoked turkey for Christmas and DH made the potatoes, beans, gravy, etc while I talked on the phone with Mom. Did I mention my DH really spoils me sometimes? Cuz he does.
He didn’t have to work on Christmas Day, so we spent most of the day wandering around sleeping on any flat surface we could find while the kids played pool and learned the ropes of their new video game
The cat also had a fabulous time. She loved the wrapping paper, the games with balls and the smoked turkey. Before warming up the turkey DH and I pulled all the meat off the bones and put it in baggies in the refrigerator so it wouldn’t take up so much room. Ginger really wanted to help us.
We threw her in the bathroom during the turkey pulling part of the day. But when we let her out she vacuumed the floor and licked the table clean of every stray scrap. Then she collapsed into a tryptophan haze.
DH and I stayed up late to watch “The DaVinci Code.” He had never read the book, so he came into the plot cold. DS-12 wanted to watch it but I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea. Halfway into the movie DH agreed it was not suitable for our children.
I’m not really sure how I feel about the movie. I really enjoyed the book, but there were a few disturbing themes in it, and it did spark quite a conversation between DH and I.
I climbed out of bed early this morning to write the truck driver story. DH went to work at noon and I went back to bed for an hour or two. I spent the rest of the day playing with the kids, something I rarely get to do anymore. I had planned to clean house, but I didn’t get a whole lot done.
Tomorrow I will probably been thrown back into the real world ~ kicking and screaming.
I am going to take down the tree ASAP because the cat keeps climbing in it. I’m itching to dig out my scrap room and start playing with paper, and the floors, laundry and bills all need attention.
Our Christmas vacation was brief, but enjoyable, and while the build up started to make me a little crazy, I’m a little sad to see it end.