Christmas in Review

It's been almost a week since Christmas and I am finally getting around to blogging about it. I am always surprised my how Christmas never goes quite as planned.

It all started Christmas Eve.  I prepped food for the next day.  Robin fell apart from exhaustion.  I sent Dave out to drive him around in the car so he would pass out.   They came back in time for us to make it to the 4:30 pm Christmas Eve mass.  Normally, I avoid the children's mass due to the crowds and chaos.  But I had a plan!  I would order our traditional Christmas Eve Thai food.  It would arrive just after we returned from mass.  Kids would take baths, be in jammies.  We'd watch a Christmas movie and kids would go to bed at a reasonable time.  Piece of cake.

Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year.  I dragged the kids to mass on Saturday evening so they didn't have to go twice in one day.  Anyone who likes Thai or Teriyaki knows that those places generally aren't open on Sundays.  Christmas Eve was no exception.  Amazon restaurants was closed so I decided to try UberEats.  I placed my order at Panda Express (desperate times).  Driving to mass, there was a light dusting of snow.

Mass wasn't too insane.  One hour after we went inside church, we came out to a veritable winter wonderland.  So much snow!  Dave gingerly drove us home.  We watched people struggle with the hills of Shoreline.  The dark and snow made it all feel festive.  Arriving home, I checked the status of our order.  And then proceeded to watch it slowly be continuously delayed until I finally cancelled.  Kids ate peanut butter and jelly.  I bought the first 17 Christmas episodes of the Simpsons.  Some parental guidance was needed, but the kids loved it.

Christmas cozy

The view from my front door around 6:30 pm.

Kids were under strict instructions to not get up before 7 am.  We generally do not go overboard on Christmas.  This year we did not do a big gift either.  While I refused to get her a live animal, Santa brought Eileen a battery operated hamster.  It was love at first sight.  His name is Fluffy.

The old ball and chain.

The benefit of a white Christmas meant that the kids spent a large portion of the day playing outside, coming inside for brief rests.

Eileen has been begging me to dye her hair and make her a red head.  Santa brought her hair chalk pens.  They seem to have satisfied her desire for now.  Linus was pretty into them as well.

It was a pretty quiet afternoon as we prepped for our my family arrived.

Robin preferred to keep me company while I did things like set the table.

I always find Christmas with my family a little exhausting.  Sorry guys!  It's just a lot of presents, given by people who love my kids and my niece and nephew.

I made the mistake of buying Christmas crackers that came with whistles.  Whistles and children at the dinner table DO NOT mix.  I repeat.  DO NOT mix.  We moved the "musical sounds" to the other room where Beth attempted to conduct the group.

In a parenting fail, a few days after Christmas I found one of Linus' Christmas presents wrapped and hiding in my closet.  Whoops!  At this point, Linus is in the know about Santa so he kind of like the surprise delayed present opening.

The Rousseau family stayed on with us for the next few days.  There was lots of playing of Beyblades and Pokemon.

Quality cousin time.

And even a trip to the Family Fun Center.  I hate the Family Fun Center, but let it be known that I won at mini-golf.

Look Grandma!  I got a picture of all 5 kids.

I took the big kids to see Jumanji.  I was surprised by how good it was, aside from a few penis jokes/implications. The kids spent the rest of their time talking about who they would be in Jumanji and why.  At the night the grownups got to hang out -- playing games, watching movies, and even going a double date one night!

As I said earlier, nothing ever goes as planned.  A friend, who was house sitting for my sister, got very sick and end up in the ICU.  Thrown into all the festivities was going over to my sister's to clean up the house and take care of Pee Wee, the dog.  The kids liked playing pool at their house and snuggling Pee Wee.  When I could I sat with my friend at the hospital.  My sister, Beth, joined me one day and I got to watch her put her music therapy skills to work.  She is very good at what she does.

Life is starting to get back to normal.  The snow is melted.  Our house guests are gone.  We still have one more Christmas to attend on New Years.  I go back to work on Tuesday.  It's been a wild winter break.  I'm a few pounds heavier and many dollars lighter.  I am grateful for all that I have and am hopeful that 2018 will bring greater balance to the world.