It's now December 27. Christmas Day is officially over...too soon. Usually I feel the Christmas spirit very early in December. I love it. I love everything about it. This year, though, things were different...strange...delayed. And I didn't love it. Maybe it was that I didn't have the Christmas shopping finished in early December like I usually do. I felt so rushed at the end, trying to find the perfect gifts at the perfect prices (is it just me, or is that getting harder every year?). Or maybe it was because we were so busy between work, school, the girls' activities, church, and everything else that there just wasn't time to sit down and absorb the Christmas-y-ness that was all around us. Maybe it was because the stores put out their Christmas displays before Halloween (there ought to be a law....) and it just felt too commercial, too overdone. I don't know. Whatever it was, I didn't like it at all. Even after we went to bed on Christmas Eve (after panicking over a missing gift, which was finally found), I told DH that I just didn't feel it this year. And I was so sad about it.
But then, at 6:30 a.m. on Christmas morning, I heard the girls up and about, in the bathroom. They told us they were going to get up at 6:30 to get their hair and teeth brushed and get all ready to open their gifts. LOL! Hearing them giggling together, 12-year-old A helping 7-year-old B, getting along, warmed my heart. It started...that Christmas-y feeling I had been searching for all month. The girls bounced into our room at 6:45. The rule in our house is that they aren't allowed into the living room until 7 a.m....DH wanted to give in but I wanted to build the anticipation a bit longer, while we waited for Grandma and Papa to arrive for the fun. According to the girls, it was 7:02 when we finally let them out into the living room.
Usually there are very large, unwrapped gifts awaiting the family. One year it was a huge Barbie house...another year it was a ride-on Barbie 4-wheeler. As the girls have gotten older the gifts have gotten smaller, but more expensive (read: Electronics). It seemed a bit bare and sparse and I was hoping the girls would love their gifts. They did!! A was especially excited about her cell phone and upcoming trip to Massachusetts to visit Aunt M and Uncle B and see SNOW (she has missed it terribly since we left Alaska).
Brienna was thrilled with everything she got. She loves that monkey Bobby Jack, and her favorites were a monkey pillow and a stuffed Bobby Jack monkey from Grandma and a Bobby Jack fleece hoodie from Grandma Gaye. Of course, she also loves the new bedding Santa brought her!
Santa was very good to me this year. After years of doing my own Christmas shopping, I decided to let Santa handle it himself this year. And he was wonderful! An iPod Nano, a beautiful ring, a gorgeous bracelet...a lovely sweater from A along with a soft pillow she crocheted herself, and a really nice black handbag from B along with a name sign she hand painted for me...I was truly spoiled this year and it was so much fun to be surprised with my gifts! Santa brought DH a small fridge for his classroom and he also got a new stereo receiver, so he was happy as well.
Later in the morning we went to Grandma and Papa's house where we were further spoiled. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the new games Santa brought us (Deal or No Deal, Rummikub, and Blokus -- all huge hits!), spending time with our family, and especially enjoying baby N, my sister's son. It was a beautiful day. It made me so grateful that we are blessed to live near family (right around the block!) and be a part of each other's daily lives, and share these special holidays. We spent time on the phone with extended family and siblings and missed them so much...hopefully next year more of us will be together.
All in all, it was a beautiful Christmas...everything I could have asked for and more...it just ended too soon.
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