Round and Round the Christmas Tree . . .

Opening presents with the family, one for me and two for you, oh what a Christmas day.

I guess I took a little Christmas break from blogging. There was so much to get done these last couple of weeks that I amazed even myself with my accomplishments.

Needless to say there weren't all that many exciting things to blog about. But there were a few that I feel I should address. I guess that means more back blogging, but I'll get to that later. I must first address Christmas.

First we start with the visit to Santa at work. Every year Mithrandir's company has a Santa that comes and brings a present for each child of the employees. It is very fun and the kids love it.

Taz was very enthusiastic about explaining the RC tarantula he wanted, Santa said he thought he'd have to check with mom and dad first on that one.

WG was of course more than the Santa expected. When he asked for a RC helicopter and Santa asked if WG thought he could control it WG said "of course that is what the remote is for"

Princess was once again too frightened to go near Santa. He really felt bad that she cried.

But she loved her gift, a Mrs. Pott's tea set, complete with matching chips in each tea cup.

Taz's gift was an unexpected alien making set, which he loves. It comes with goo and a spaceship. What more could a little boy that loves nasty things ask for.

WG got a Bumblebee Transformer. No it is not a bug, it is the hero from the movie. He loves it.

That was Friday before Christmas. The next couple of days flew past in a blur of picking up last minute stocking stuffers and odds and ends for Christmas dinner.

Christmas eve we carried on the tradition of reading the Christmas story from the Bible, singing Christmas Hymns from the hymnal, and having a the nativity sceen acted out by our children. But since we were a few actors short, we used our very large stuffed animals to fill in the empty roles. they did a very good job.

The Pooh Angel was my favorite.

Then we let the kids each open one present before going to bed. You get the unwrapped version of these presents because I loved their sweet faces. They were each so excited for Christmas. It was so fun to see their joy of the first present.



Christmas morning we of course made them wait until we were ready to get out of bed, and they did a very good job.

I took some video with our other camera of them opening their Santa Claus gifts but it has been so long since I've used that camera that I forgot a few things and the video didn't really turn out. So I just have an after shot. I don' t even know where they put their presents, but they look happy.

Then it was breakfast and getting the turkey in the oven before we started opening the rest of the loot. I picked just a few of these pics to share, there seem to be a million.

WG loved each of his gifts. The RC helicopter is his favorite but this unexpected find by Grandma Marie is also a real hit. It is a dinosaur activity book and he loves it.

Here is Taz with his prize gift, the RC Tarantula. Yes I did it! It freaks both Princess and Me out but we're adjusting, I've even touched the thing now. And Taz adores it.

There are actually two funny stories with that gift I have to share. First WG's reaction to seeing Taz open it. He was absolutely astonished that I would buy that for him. "But Mom hates spiders, why would she do that?" It was great. Then when Princess found it at the top of the stairs, "Mamaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Dere's a wilwy big pider at the top of da tairs!" - "Tell your Dad." - "Daddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" - It took us quite a while to explain it was just a toy and wouldn't hurt her. She adjusted slightly when we showed her how to control it with the remote, but she still runs screaming if it comes after her, even if she has the remote :).

Princess cleaned up in the baby department. We bought her one of those all in one room in a box baby gear sets, with: stroller, high chair, swing, play pen, diaper bag, car seat and accessories.

From my grandparents she got a doll that laughs, cries, sneezes, jabbers, and has a heart beat through the toy stethoscope she came with. She loves it, of course.

Billy got the saws he wanted, along with some other things, including a new disc golfing disc.

And I got a number of movies, including two Pride and Prejudices (yes I wanted them both) and Dark Knight, and some very nice jewlery.

So our gifting was finally over and Christmas dinner was ready. This was the one part I was most nervous about doing all by my self. I had called my dad a couple of weeks before to make an 'appointment' to get all of his recipes for stuffing, the turkey, the yummy cheese stuffed celery bites, and a number of other things. I had always helped cook but this was my first time attempting it alone and unsupervised.

It turned out wonderfully, if I do say so myself. And it was even pretty! Yeah!

Christmas at home was wonderful. It was great to spend this time alone with just my little family. To hang around the house playing with their toys and eating good food and just enjoying being together. I loved it!
The best part was that the snow and the wind kept up relentlessly the whole time and we didn't have to care. We were there together with on place to go and no long and treacherous roads to stress about. It was lovely and I can't wait to do it again.