It's been two days of Christmas here, as we had my in-law's over for Christmas dinner and my family over for the day after Christmas. Hosting two festive dinners and gift exchanges in a row was a bit ambitious of me, and meant that I had to completely clean my house, cook a meal, have folks make a mess, then completely clean my house again, cook a big meal, and have folks make a mess. But it actually was accomplished without too much fatigue or stress, and very little marital fighting, so it's our very own Christmas Miracle!
We've had some Santa drama this year, but in the end all was well and the kids found their stockings well stocked on Christmas morning with some simple toys, etc, and he even signed the autograph slip that Carbon left out for him the night before.
The big gift from us to the kids this year was a pair of swings, which we managed to set up without them figuring out what we were doing. Christmas eve in the dark, we went out with the ladder and actually put the swings up, and then Mother Nature added a gift, and it stopped raining on Christmas morning just long enough for the kids to run outside and test out the new set up.
It's been delightful this year how much the kids have enjoyed all their gifts, no matter if it was a toy or a book or art supplies. Grandma adopted wolves who live in a nearby sanctuary for them, and they were both very happy about that and sat and had us read them the whole information packet about the wolf.
My husband and I received some really thoughtful and useful gifts as well.
And just when we had that all cleaned up and put away, another whole family's worth of food and people and gifts arrived!
This action shot is blurry, but there were 17 people in my living room exchanging gifts and enjoying the visit! My grandmother came up from California, and all my siblings (plus one sister-in-law) were here, and my father and step-mother, my mother, and my cousin and her husband.
After all that, today we clean (again), catch back up on laundry, rest, and maybe I'll get the kids out of the house for a while since we haven't set foot off our property in 4 days.
And so, Christmas 2011 is all unwrapped.
No comments:
Post a Comment