Obligatory Christmas Recap

You know, every year I think "This is the best Christmas EVER!  It can't get any better than this!"  And every year it does. 

This year was particularly discouraging because Chris has been so out of sorts of late.  It cast a long shadow across the festivities and I worried it would completely overshadow the day itself, but lo, in the very Spirit of Christmas a dim light flickered and then started to grow and by the time the Day arrived it was bright and luminous.  How I love my little family.


I got up with the Boy in the hopes of letting Chris sleep in (it was all he had said he wanted for Christmas).  I started to make cinnamon rolls, I fed the Boy a bit of breakfast and he and I opened his stocking.  Santa had heard the pleas of one Exhausted by the Same Books Every Day Mama and filled the Boy's stocking chock full of new Eric Carle board books.  We read through Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Brown Bear, Brown Bear and My Very First Book of Colors and then Chris strolled out.

He and I sorted through our stockings, mine full of my favorite chocolates and Very Expensive Bars of Uber Moisturizing Soap for my winter skin (I really didn't think he'd remember to get them, as he has in years past).  His was full of mini-twixes, peanut M&Ms and Altoids.

And then came PRESENTS.  We let the Boy go first...and we only took pictures of him since he's so much cuter than Chris and I.

Santa (and by Santa I mean ME) had brought him lovely wooden toys this year, and cozy soft cotton pajamas.  And while some might say it was a lean Christmas, it wasn't.  It was just enough.

(his 3-fold stacking toy)

shapes puzzle from Grandma

jammies from Mama and Daddy

an I-Spy bag from his Auntie Susie

What he thought of the whole thing.  (dude, look at those TEETH!)

All in all it was a great day!  Chris gave me the COMPLETE WEST WING!  I was SHOCKED to say the least and yes, since you asked, I have been wallowing in West Wing goodness ever since.  My awesome  sister Susie gave me this gorgeous painting that I'm itching to hang (and totally made me CRY)--you guys should see it, it's AMAZING.  I gave Chris ties, which he'll return (it's very complicated buying ties for that man, sometimes it's a home run and sometimes it's a strike out--the past couple of years have been home runs so I was sort of due for a strike out) and a Wii game just for him.  It's Modern Warfare for those of you who are interested.  I believe in selfless Christmas gifts so giving him something that doesn't interest me in the least is (in my mind) the best gift I could possibly give him.

We went to some friends' house for dinner, our kids played together while we ate and chatted and then carted our overly-tired, overly-sugared, overly-stimulated Boy home and put him to bed. 

After a trip to Savannah to see some Family,  we came home and I took down our tree.  The Christmas fatigue set in some time before I went to Athens so I was pretty relieved to be able to take it all down and get back to normal life.

The Boy, Chris and I will now return to our regularly scheduled life.  We'll pause for a trip North to see my other awesome sister Sherry and her family, my Brother and his lovely family of ladies (he has 4 beautiful little girls, the poor man is hopelessly outnumbered) and my folks.  We're looking forward to being back in NC, even if only for a few days, to catching up with family, Chris is going to help chip some wood and he's promised me a trip to Barnes and Nobles.  I'm one lucky girl.