Christmas 2009

Sleeping in until 8:00am on Christmas Morning? Yes, that's right, not a creature was stirring, not even a 4-year-old until the morning was waxed old. It's funny that every morning for two weeks the kids have been rising between 5:50 and 6:30 and on the most exciting day of the year, they forgot. This year we have what qualifies for us as a giant Christmas tree. We have been using a 5.5 ft. decorator tree that you might see in a small grouping. Our new tree is taller, wider and brighter, but I admit I love that little tree. I am not sentimental about a whole lot, but there are some good memories of that spindly tree that always made it seem homey and Christmasy in our apartments. We set up our big tree in the family room and basked in all 1500 lights. The kids would rather have had colored lights, so I bought some for the old apartment tree and we set it up in our small living room (the piano room without the piano). The kids decorated the whole thing with all their favorite ornaments and all their projects concocted this year in school. When we were all admiring the decor, Ben looked at the tree and said that it seemed bigger before and then wondered if we were poor back then. Yeah, we were pretty poor.... but really what is wrong with the tree? I love that little thing, it will take a long time for me to give it up.

When the kids woke up, they ran to the big tree and found that Santa had not come. They were all worried. Finally we remembered the small tree. Santa was so used to putting the presents there that he put them there again. It was fun to start out with a laugh. Everyone got something to love, my favorite was my new cookbook.... watch out kiddies mommy's going to get experimental with dinner.

We visited Jeff's family and jumped every time the phone rang, wondering if his little brother had gotten engaged yet. That guy... this is three years in a row of waiting for him to call on Christmas. We really enjoyed seeing our cousins and talking to Jeff's parents.

In Christmases past, we spent the day driving from one grandma to the next and then on to the greats, but this year was a lot quieter. What kid doesn't just want to stay home and play with their new toys? Ours really appreciated the down time. My parents came for dinner and were in no rush to go home. We enjoyed them so much. Grandpa was a great sport to play marbles, build legos and engage in dart tag with the kids.