Is it bad to say, "Thank goodness Christmas comes but once a year?" Yeah, probably. The magic and wonder of the biggest of holidays is amazing and if you could repeat it without losing it all I bet we would. But with all that comes the burnt out bulbs and the broken ornaments and fights over this new toy and that. By June we'll have forgotten all that and start pining for Santa again.
Except I'm going to detail it all right here so we will have a good reference!
Nah, not really. I'll plaster over the ugliness and just hit the highlights.
Like Christmas Eve service. Technical difficulties made the microphones go all wonky and it was the first time they tried the full-congregation participation Christmas story (complete with props and lines), but in spite of that it was a success. Henry only had to leave twice and nobody got burned by the candles when we sang Silent Night.
Santa and Rudolph ate their cookies and carrots and left loads of goodies. The girls were beside themselves before we even left the family room (stockings only) to move into the living room where the tree and the main body of presents were.
Breakfast was a hit, though we did have to repeat the coffee experience later in the day once a new espresso maker was unwrapped. Nobody minded though, since the mimosas took the edge off anyone who might have stayed up too late the night before.
Thankfully, the girls are still too young to be unwilling to take breaks in the opening so we lasted well into the afternoon with lots of breaks for toys and snacks. Just as we were finishing we got a call asking if was snowing yet. Nah, nothing here. Good thing, because Auntie Amy and Uncle Ryan (and the "criplets" as Lilly has taken to calling them) weren't sure about making the trip if there was snow on the ground.
No sooner had we gotten off the phone than the first flakes started to fall. Soon there was a veritable blizzard coating the grass and actually starting to stick to the driveway. We updated our potential guests, but decided dinner would have to go on anyway. (Ham and turkey together? There just couldn't be a delay. (No, it wasn't some freaky melding of the meats like a turducken.))
Thankfully they did arrive and so did Grandma Joan. We tore through their presents and almost lost them to locations where they could spend a night if they were stranded, but in the end the promise of meat kept them at the table. (When they left they found the snow wasn't really an issue once they got away from the mountains.)
The evening wrapped up reading the girls their customized name books as they snuggled with their look-alike dolls. Henry pretty much thought it any other day, but that will be a one-time deal. Next year we really will have our hands full.
Thank goodness for that June amnesia.
