Christmas 2010

 Christmas 2010 was a hit.  I was a bit worried since it’s pretty hard to top the attic surprise of last year.  But the kids were delighted.  The food was good.   The company of Eli and Julie and Charity made everything funnier and more enjoyable.  We were showered gifts from so many people.  It literally took us all day to get through all the presents under the tree (stopping with plenty of breaks to play with and enjoy the gifts.)  I stopped dead in my tracks a few times during the day, shocked by the incredible abundance we were enjoying.  I realize that it’s rare in this world to have a Christmas like this.   We all feel pretty lucky. Hazel got the Fashion Weaving Loom that she asked for, some used books to read and a Fashion sticker book (by Usborn….Charity vows she’s asking for one next Christmas).   Santa also left her a little sewing kit up in the attic.    Charlie got the a LEGO Power Miner Set.  He has been studying the picture of this in the LEGO magazine for more than a month.  The set is recommended for 8-14 year olds and when Charlie wrote his letter to Santa he told Santa that if he though this item was too difficult for him Santa could just bring something similar that was specially made to fit Charlie’s skills.  After sending the letter Charlie got a bit worried that he wouldn’t get this exact thing so throughout all of December he tried his best (with a lot of reminding from me) to act like an 8 year old.  Santa also brought him some Astronaut food and a LEGO book.  Charlie ripped open that Power Miner box and had to be coerced to come and open anything new.  He put together the entire thing by mid afternoon with only a teeny bit of help from dad.  He was pleased as punch.   Emmeline knew right away which toys were for her.  She was delighted and frustrated by the doll set….wanting to carry things around and “guckle” her dolly into everything but not able to actually do it herself.  She spent a lot of the morning yelling at us to help her.  An early nap kind of saved the day. One of my favorite parts about this Christmas was that , for the first time since we moved into our house, we had a real, raging fire all day long.   Jeff is going to post the long fireplace fixing saga that took up a big chunk of our Christmas season later.  As painful as that was, it was pretty magical to have a roaring fire warming the room all day long.  Probably the best gift of the day was the Motegi Racing Wheel I got for Jeff.   He was thoroughly confused by the gift and I was flabbergasted by his confusion.  This was my big gift for him, but it was pretty clear when he opened it that it wasn’t his hearts desire.  Turns out he doesn’t really know how to make an Amazon wish list and somehow he inadvertently put this wheel on his list  Turns out that I was a bit too rushed to really look at what I was buying.  I just ordered the biggest, most impressive thing I could see on his wish list.   I didn’t give it much thought, didn’t even look at the description.  I just assumed that one of the wheels on his motorcycle was rusted through or something and this was a replacement.    We all had a good laugh, though it was sort of a teary laugh from me…..I wanted him to have something he had been longing for.  Good thing it’s his birthday in a few weeks.  Maybe I’ll teach him to make a proper Amazon wish list before then. Charity was a perfect little elf in her white elephant Christmas morning suite.  It looks pretty cute dressed up by that apron I gave her (made by the fabulous Angi).   We took a break at noon to have a Christmas brunch with some friends from the ward.  It felt good to get some real food in our bellies along with all those orange slices and Reese’s peanut butter cups. Emmeline was much happier after her nap.  She seemed to be getting what was going on….or at least thriving on all the chaos. Our neighbors dropped by with gifts for the kids.  They do every year, and somehow they always pick out the perfect presents.  They gave Emmeline the mother of playdou sets.  I didn’t think she’d really get playdou, but I was wrong.  She played for nearly two hours.  Hazel liked it to…..above is her little playdou scene. We spent the afternoon face timing family and opening more and more gifts.   I think I redeemed my gift giving skills after the racing wheel by giving Hazel this old manual typewriter.  I got it on Freecycle (online list serve where you can list things you’d like to take off of someone's hands).  It is a gem.  There’s just something so nostalgic and kitsch and real about an old vintage typewriter.  Hazel typed on it all evening and when she went to bed her sad for the day was that every child in the world didn’t have a typewriter.  I’ll post some of the things she has written on it, they are priceless.  She’s suddenly very into sounding things out and writing.  Thanks Sarah for the idea.  I think we’re going to get a lot of use out of that thing.    Don’t you love the enormous mess of Christmas?   The messier the merrier.       Huge sigh.  We pulled it off.  And I even enjoyed Christmas Day immensely. 

(now I need to figure out how to enjoy the rest of the season…..but that’s a topic for another post.)