Tag - Holidays

How was your Christmas?  I hope it was a blessed one, full of love and gratitude.  One of my many Jen friends had a baby on Christmas Eve – does it get better than that?  Not really, but short of that, our Christmas was a good one.

Our Christmas Eve was a little busier than I would have liked, but it wasn’t too crazy.  Next year (and I say this every year) I’ll do things a bit differently.  I want to have more presents wrapped, ideally as they arrive at the house, and have more things baked earlier.  Next year we’ll have a deep freezer, so I can get an early start and freeze cookies and quick breads a month or two early.  That’s the plan, anyway.  God doesn’t like me making plans, though.

In the late afternoon we were all rushed and irritable.  Philip had to arrive at church an hour early to sing in the choir, and Boo was serving at mass, so he went early, too.  That left me, Pumpkin Girl and Bip to get ready and sit by ourselves.  I have to admit that I was quite put out by that and Bip didn’t help by whining through mass and I had to take him out.  Mass was long and filled with incense – and just listen to me, could I complain any more?  Someone smack me, OK?  Ah, much better.  Sorry about that.

Despite my grumpiness and Bip’s 3 year oldness, I was able to appreciate the beauty of Philip singing solo during mass and the joy of being surrounded by good friends.  We are truly blessed by our faith community here.

Back at home, we had our traditional tamale dinner and we let the children watch “A Christmas Carol” for the first time.  Our favorite version is the one with George C. Scott as Patton Scrooge, but it can be a bit intense.  I read A Christmas Carol to the children this month – an illustrated classic version- and when they saw we had the movie, they begged to see it.  We skipped one bit and they really enjoyed it.  Philip and I have watched it every year, either on Christmas Eve or Christmas night, since we’ve been married.

We sent the children to bed with dire warnings to go to sleep, no talking, no playing or no presents.  We also threatened them if they so much as whispered before 7 am the next morning.

Of course, Christmas morning I was awakened by rather loud whispering at exactly 6:48.  It was still dark, STILL DARK I tell you!  At 7:00 they were running up and down the stairs and by 7:10 they had pounced on us in our bed.  No amount of feiging sleep could convince them to leave us alone.  Alas, resigned to our fate, we dragged ourselves downstairs.

Everyone got something that they really, really wanted and some other really cool gifts, too.  We stayed in our pajamas until around noon, eating cookies, playing Wii and reading books.  It was a good day.

Now we are in the final week of the year. The week after Christmas has always been my favorite.  I love being at home with almost no commitments, no where to go and nothing to do.  Of course, Pumpkin Girl’s birthday is this week, too – so we’ll celebrate her.

All is well.

There was Jedi Training in the front yard.

A little sunshine

Some rain (third year in a row, but this time no scary storms!)

Hot dogs

A short walk to the fireworks

More rain during the show

Isn’t this picture cool? You can see the lights of the fireworks reflected on the Potomac and can just make out the Washington Monument. All the lights on the left are Reagan Nat’l Airport. I generally don’t take pictures of fireworks since I’d rather just watch. Plus, other people do a much better job with the same firework show, like this: