The Holidays....Finally...

This was the most magical of magical Christmases. I wonder if our kids will remember it that way or if it holds more meaning for Doug and I since we have grown out of Christmas magic. Sterling is 5 and, I think, just the right age to know what is going to happen and be excited about it, but too young to have learned the truth behind the fairytale. Evie, who is 3, follows wherever Sterling goes and so it is just the same for her. So this was the perfect year for Grandpa Dewey to grow his beard out, don his Santa suit and surprise the kids with "extra" presents that Santa had in his bag. They were shy at first (who wouldn't be at such an elusively famous stranger suddenly in your house!), but as the toys came out they relaxed. They talked about it for days; how Santa came to visit their house!




Earlier in the season I decided to buy Children's series ballet tickets that would allow us to see three shows: The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The kids have Barbie in the Nutcracker on DVD and it's one of their very favorites, so I thought they would love to go see it live. To make it even better, the tickets were for Christmas Eve day! Sterling was a little wiggly and bringing the binoculars saved us there, but they both really liked it! And Doug and I LOVED it!



Grandma Lynne, Evie, Papa Larry, Sterling, and Grandma Dee-Dee

We then went to my mom's for Christmas Eve dinner with the Fam.

Uncle Scottie, Aunt Brandy & Uncle Wes

Uncle Cassidy, Stephanie, Evie

Uncle Jeremy and Hylton


And the cutest Great-Grandparents EVER! (Although, this picture kinda makes it look like Grandpa either wants to hurt Grandma or give her a smooch...)

We, of course, had Christmas Day at home and the best part was this: I woke up to patter of little feet running past our room to the Christmas Tree and Sterling's & Evie's exclamations of all that they saw. Sterling then runs into our room and grabs my hand and says, "Mom, you have to see this! Close your eyes! Santa came! There's a Bat Cave and a kitchen and candy and Lucky Charms!!" I truly can't remember a time when I believed Santa was real since I found out when I was six, so his unalloyed excitement about Christmas Day was just so enchanting! And do you know? I think it could never have held such happiness for me as a child as it did for me this year as a Mommy.

And I must say, it was so smart of Santa to bring a sled for the kids because later the next week it snowed. A lot.




Doug tried to come home around 4:00pm, but traffic was so bad, he only made it 5 blocks and turned around and went back to work. That little excursion took him 2 hours! He was at work until 11:30 when the roads finally cleared of traffic enough that he could leave. Anyway, I built this snowman for the kids. Probably the first one I've done in 20 years!


I love how the snow makes everything so clean and pretty...and quiet.


To round out the season, we had a White Elephant gift exchange party. I am still surprised we were able to fit everyone into our tiny sitting room! And this was without a finished kitchen, I might add! Our guests were so gracious about it all.




We had so much fun unwrapping horrid things like ugly papiér maché cats and kitchy figurines.


Doug got stuck with a 2-foot-tall 2nd place Pinewood Derby trophy, I scored an awesome pair of pink boxing gloves (thank you, Rachel),

and we sent these relics of our house home with the unfortunate Guenthers...who then regifted to our friends who couldn't be there. I'm sure they were thrilled about being included this way!


To top it all off, I got a free piano off of Craigslist that is so ugly! It plays alright though, which is the important thing. The kids would just mess it up anyway if it was nice. You can see it in the background of this picture with Evie and don't be deceived - it truly is horrid. I think I'll spraypaint it black- you know my partiality for black spraypaint! The point of the picture, though, is to show how attached Evie is to Hylton's Crusoe (the blue seahorse in her hand). So much so, that my Mom bought her a pink Crusoe for Christmas to keep her from taking his all the time. It caused a bit of contention at first because, although Evie was no longer taking Hylton's, he now thought hers was his. Fortunately it wore off quickly and life has been beautiful ever since!