Love came down on Christmas

There's a first for everything, even on Christmas Eve. Until this year we had never been invited to a birthday party for Jesus complete with birthday cake (with pumpkin cream cheese filling between two layers of chocolate buttermilk cake), Christmas Jeopardy (do YOU know the ingredients of figgy pudding?) and lots of yummy food.

After our own family's little Christmas Eve devotional the kids were tucked in their beds and Spouse and I put on "It's a Wonderful Life" while we began our work of wrapping and assembling.

I woke at 7:10 Christmas morning to silence and grayish streams of sunlight peaking through the blinds; the children were still asleep! The morning was full of excitement, joy and a big breakfast. Is there anything sweeter than children on Christmas morning? No. No there isn't.

***my apologies in advance for the state of my hair and the terrible pajama pants I was wearing. I swear they only appear once a year.****

Dude, Where's My Card?

Have you been stalking your mailman, camping by your mailbox or anxiously pining away for our family's Christmas card/picture/brag sheet? Well, you are not alone. We didn't forget about you. We forgot about EVERYONE.

Let me explain. We didn't forget. It just didn't happen. Very sorry. I hope you can make it through this Christmas season without our annual greetings.

But we have LOVED getting all of your card/pictures/cute letters. If you haven't sent yours yet, we won't hate you, yet. You have until December 31 before we are officially offended. But don't think that means you are getting something from us. If you feel like this is an unfair deal, just remember that it's Christmastime and it is always better to give than to receive.

As a token of our appreciation and goodwill to our friends and family I will bestow upon you the great honor of viewing some of our Christmas preparations in the form of photography. (These aren't just pictures anymore, now that I have my fancy new camera. They are Photographs.)

Christmas cookie mess making, I mean decorating. To avoid the overly-accessorized-to-the-point-of-inedibility cookies of years past I set a new rule this year: if you don't want to eat it, no one else will. Sprinkle, red hot and frosting usage was kept quite tame.

What Christmas would be complete without a visit to the temple to see the lights? Add some friends and warmish weather and you've got yourself a memory!

A morning at the park is just what the doctor ordered to stave off the excitement and subsequent energy of it being almost Christmas.




The kids have made up new games based around Christmas and our tree. Taking the packages out from under the tree and organizing them into piles or rows is called "Santa's Elves" and pretending to surprise each other with the presents is another one they call "Special Delivery"

Next year will be better. You'll get a card.

Merry Christmas!

Bob Dylan singing Christmas?

I'm not the only one with low tolerance for certain "Christmas" songs. We had the local all-Christmas-all-the-time station on in the car (Dee-Lie-Lah, could you be any more annoying?) when the overly played, slow drumming beat began. From the second row #2 yells out, "Drummer Boy again? I hate this song!" It may have something to do with the disturbing, stop motion movie from the the '60's called "Little Drummer Boy" that he had recently viewed. I guess I'm a spoiled Pixar sort of girl now, but those clay-mation figures lurching around are something out of a nightmare! It's no wonder he dislikes that song.

Since my last post several friends have confessed to disliking other apparently popular Christmas music: "Last Christmas" by Wham and "Feed the World" with U2 were mentioned in the comments. "Christmas Shoes" is hated by another friend of mine ("met my old lover at the grocery store..."). I usually flip the station before it gets further than that but once I was forced to endure the entire song while I was shopping, you got it, at the grocery store. I'm still trying to recover. And then there is that horrible song that starts with John Lennon and Yoko Ono whispering "happy Christmas" to each other in bedroom voices. My mind automatically recalls that album cover where they are standing naked next to each other and then I feel like I'm listening in on their intimacies. Yuk.

I've been playing Andrea Boccelli's new Christmas cd a lot lately. I really like the mix of the playfulness of some of the songs with his classical, mellow voice. And I think "The Lord's Prayer" with the MoTab is one of the most beautiful interpretations of that song. But #2 cannot get enough of his "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." He has listened to it over and over. For Nana, Grandma and anyone else in love with #2 enough please enjoy his 50 second cover of Andrea Boccelli's cover of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. For the rest of you, please indulge me and give me a laugh today by adding to our most hated Christmas song list. Or if you think this effort is too scroogey, then tell me your favorites.

I've Got My Work Cut Out For Me

I spent some time with #1 on Saturday Christmas shopping. I love getting #1 all to myself. She is interesting, makes jokes, discusses heavy topics, and never, ever minces words. Most of the time I appreciate this quality about her, I like honest directness. But as you can imagine, speaking her mind has gotten her into trouble. I'm trying to teach her a balance of being both sensitive and honest.

So back to my story. While Christmas shopping several things were revealed to me:

1) #1 is Catholic. Apparently she's been telling her friends at school she is Catholic. Note to self: emergency FHE!!!!

2) She knows the word sexy. Yikes! #1 was in the dressing stall with me while I tired on some clothes at the Banana Republic outlet (the entire store was 50% off!). I zipped up a pair of pants and #1 said, "Sexy, mom." I didn't want to react too much so I asked her if she knew what sexy meant. "It means pretty." "Ok," I explained, "it means a little bit more than pretty and I think you should avoid saying it." "Can I say it just one more time?" "Fine." "Sexy pants, mom. I like those sexy, sexy pants. They are sexy." "That was more than once." "What? You're the one being sexy."

3) #1 really loves me. For my birthday she gave me the gift of "being nice to #2 from now on." Last night she snuggled in my lap and gave me a big hug then whispered something in my ear. "I'm changing my birthday present to you to kisses and hugs every day. The other present was too hard."

So you can see, I've got my work cut out for me.