Whew, that was a whirlwind 24 hours! My mom, sister-in-law and niece came to our house last minute on Christmas Eve. It wasn't planned but my brother sprung on my sister-in-law that he wanted a divorce and was spending Christmas with the woman he's been "seeing" from work and her children. Yeah, instead of his own daughter and wife. That made me want to envelope them in a big huge hug. My niece is only 5 months old, you see, and this is her first Christmas. It was great to get to share her first Christmas and make those memories for her and L (my sister-in-law) here at our house.
I have/had a feeling that if in fact their marriage is over then this could very well be our first and last Christmas with my niece since (rightfully so) my sister-in-law would want to be around her family which is on the other side of the country. I would move home too, if I was her. So for that reason alone I wanted to soak up as much baby Cookie time as possible. Baby Cookie? My niece's name is Brooklyn and Brooklyn = Brookie = Cookie. Quiet down now, it makes perfect sense to me.
I wish circumstances were different but it is what it is.
And don't forget, my early and biggest Christmas present was getting to have my sister S here for her birthday and Christmas!
So after a nice dinner of hamburger stew (thanks to E) we opened some gifts. G loved passing the presents out. I think next year I'm going to put the names on gifts in a big way so he can try and sort them himself. He'll be 4.5 so I'm sure he'll be reading chapter books by then anyway, right? Anyway, G opened some gifts, Cookie opened some gifts, etc. G got a lot of books this Christmas and almost every time he'd open a book he'd have to stop all that he was doing in order to sit down and flip through the pages, while showing Cookie and explaining it to her of course. She was more interested in eating the wrapping paper but someday she'll be older and she'll look at the pictures of big cousin G reading to her on Christmas Eve and smile. It was a pretty late night but everyone crashed, G on the floor in our room, L and Cookie in G's twin bed, my mom on the couch and my sister in the guest room.
Then E and I got to stay up and work on filling stockings and putting together G's "big" gift from Satan. If you know me, you'll realize that's not a typo. His gift was the big remote control Cranky the Crane that he stops what he's doing to drool over when a commercial for it comes on the TV. We got the whole thing set up and then went to put the batteries in. Uh oh, guess what? There's one of those battery pack type inserts...or there's supposed to be. Yeah, ours was missing that. So Cranky didn't work. I got right on the chat thing with Amazon and threw a hissy fit and was told that they would send a replacement out as soon as possible. It showed up almost a week later but that's not really the customer service reps fault, holiday shipping days and all. Oh and I also found him a wicked cool train crossing sign that has an arm that lifts and lowers and working lights and everything.
Christmas morning E was already awake and so was G's Nana so they were out in the front room when G woke up, came out of my bedroom, saw Cranky and exclaimed, "It's Cranky, just wike on da TB!" Complete with the Home Alone "Ahhhh!" expression. I'm sad I missed it but only because I love seeing him excited. Daddy told G that Cranky was broken but that Santa's elves were going to come and fix him. Yeah, that was fun for like the next six days.
G: "I need call Santa."
Me: "Why?
G: "Because Cwanky is bwoken and his elbs taking too long to come fix him."
Me: "They'll be here Friday."
G: "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa but I want pway wiff Cwanky now!" (that's how I suspect a 3.5 year old crying would be typed out).
When everyone was awake we opened the remainder of the Christmas gifts and checked out our stockings. G could have cared less about anything in his stocking, he had Cranky and that's all he wanted/needed. Well and his remote control Lightning McQueen, that was a big hit too. As usual, Aunty S spoiled G. He got two Toy Story themed Wii games. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I should get those out for him to play with huh? I won't bore you and list out all the "stuff" we got except to tell you that Nana got G his own little point and shoot camera, a nice little Kodak. He loves it. And E's mom got him a train set that he adores. We got him a Cat train set as well but it's nowhere near as cool. The highlight for me was a framed, professionally done picture of S and the book and the book
Slow Cookers Go Wild: 100+ Recipes for Wild Game. I can't wait to crack that baby open. And E was a good boy and bought me some photography related items off of my Amazon wish list. Someday, someday him and G will make me a special gift, I just know it's going to happen! E got the book
Predator Calling! which means now I'll be a hunting widow for more than deer/elk season. Greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Oh and then of course I can't forget that some idiot (see: me) put a can of silly string in G's stocking and in Aunty S's stocking. THAT was fun to clean up.
But what was my favorite Christmas gift? Well, G bought his Daddy a gift for them to share. Nerf guns. Yep, G's first guns. Too bad he got bored with them pretty quick but unfortunately for him, I didn't. Man I love being able to shoot people and not get in trouble for it. I told G that it's against the law to shoot anyone in the head/face. Too bad I'm a lawbreaker. I haven't laughed that hard and maniacally in a long time. I even shot the baby but before you go callin' CPS on me, I shot her in the butt...which is well padded thanks to Pampers, mm-kay? I discovered that the 8 Nerf bullets just weren't going to be enough since we lost two of them within the first ten minutes. These will be fun for awhile to come, pity our dogs.
My mom and L and Cookie left that evening since they both had to work the next day. I was sad to see them go so soon but here's something I learned about myself. I'm impossible to please. Remember last year when I was whining that our Christmas with the three of us was just too quiet and I missed my loud and boisterous family? Well this year, with four extra people here it was plenty loud and boisterous and I started to complain about having a headache. Then E reminded me that I love having my family around, that it's just because I've become a hermit in the last few years that it overwhelms me to have so many people in my house. Like at G's birthday party this summer, same feeling of overwhelmed by people at my house.
Between me and my camera plus L and her camera plus Nana and her camera we have lots and lots of pictures to remind us of the fun 24 hours of Christmas we shared. I am thankful for the time that we got to spend with each person that was here and I'm thankful to get spend yet another Christmas as G's momma.
What is my goal for Christmas 2012? Simpler. Cheaper. Less stuff. Homemade. Even more love.
July 2011 
July 2011 
Halloween 2011 
