Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day - December 24th - 25th

On Christmas eve, we had no fancy feast this year like we did last year. I had already cooked for Yule and I had to make a Yule log cake and my Christmas Pinwheels for our feast at my Aunt and Uncle's house, so I really wasn't in to cooking a big meal this year.

We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve. I had put candy into all of them. I got James some green tea mints, and two types of Burt's Bees chapstick. James got Owen a box of magnetic marbles. James got me some really pretty silver earrings that match the necklace he got me for my birthday really well. I was surprised to get such a nice stocking stuffer.

The next day I woke up early and jumped in the shower. I thought I would get a head start on getting ready before James and Owen got out of bed. By the end of my shower Owen was banging on my door. He wanted to take a bath. I asked him if he wanted to open his presents first or take a bath first. He wanted his bath first. He must be the only kid who wanted to take a bath before opening presents on Christmas morning.

After his bath we opened our presents, all taking turns so that we could watch each other. Last year, James and I didn't buy each other gifts, we just got one gift for the whole family together. This year we bought each other gifts. James was supposed to get a GPS and I a record player. I got my record player, but James does not like any GPS in existence except the iphone, which we can't afford right now due the monthly internet cost, so he didn't get his big gift. He doesn't seem to mind though because we are both enjoying our record player. He wanted me to make him a mug and shirt from Zazzle though, and I also surprised him with a few other little things. He surprised me with a few little things too, all of which I had been really wanting. We got Owen some fun things too. He got mostly books this year, plus more marble works, plus a robot. The robot was supposed to be the U-command Wall•e, but, the store I ordered it from online canceled my order without telling me. I had to run to Target to find something else and they had two robots to choose from, one that was reasonably priced but really scary looking, and one that didn't look scary but was very expensive. I just bought him a smaller version of the expensive one, that was way cheaper, but also didn't do as much. He really liked it and was so excited when he opened it, even though it wasn't the Wall•e I had hoped it would be. Owen also got a mug from Zazzle. He told me he wanted a pink mug with his name on it. For some reason you can't get a solid colored mug at the you-design-it websites, so I went with a pink inside. I did a drawing of a snowman for the outside, and chose a snow topped font with pink lettering. He was quite pleased and has already drank out of it.

When we first started putting presents under the tree a few weeks before Christmas, there was one for James, one for Owen, and none for me. Owen was very sensitive to this and seemed to be really upset that there was no present for me. He told James that he wanted to get me a present of hot chocolate. So, a week or so later, long after there was a small pile of gifts for me, another one was added in a baseball gift bag. Owen chose the gift bag too. James told Owen not to tell me what was in it, and he never did. He is a good little secret keeper, because he knew what I was getting, what James was getting, and what Lyric was getting, and he never told any of us what was inside our packages. Of course, I love hot chocolate and they got me three tins of it! I was so touched by Owen wanting to get that for me, and the fact that he thought of something he knew I would like to have. When I tucked him into the bed the next night I told him again how surprised I was and how happy I was to get that from him. He told me then that he first thought of getting me hot tea. Then he looked up at me very seriously and said, "would you have liked hot tea"? I said, "yes, I like hot tea too, but I think you made the right decision to get me hot cocoa, because I like to drink hot cocoa a lot more then hot tea."

So, where were we? Oh, it was Christmas day and we had just opened up all our presents. Then we were off to Grammie and Grampy's house, otherwise known as my parents. Berta and Lyric were there too. We all exchanged gifts. We also had hot chocolate and cookies. I got my mom a glass tea pot, which I knew she really wanted. I got my dad a shirt from Zazzle that I designed. It said, "Grampy's racin' buddies" and had a picture of the fireworks from the races last summer and a picture in the foreground of Grampy with all three of his grandkids. My dad loved it. It was fun to give them things I knew they would really like. Lyric got some playsilks that I made for here, all blue because she only ever wants blue, and I'm told she plays with them all the time. Owen and Lyric exchanged gifts as well. They always seem to know the perfect gift for each other.

I had made a Yule log cake which needs to stay frozen. The temp was below freezing, so we left the cake in the trunk of our car while we were at my parents house. I forgot about the fact that the sun was shining on the trunk of the car though, and the cake had started to melt a bit. The powdered sugar snow had mostly melted into the cake. So once we got to my Aunt and Uncle's house, I put the cake out on their deck. The whole cake thing was kind of stressful. It was fun to make, it turned out looking and tasting awesome, but, it was a huge hassle to try to keep this huge thing frozen and knowing when to go get it and put it out on the table. I went and got it right before we ate so people would see it before I cut into it, but the room was so warm from all the bodies it melted more then it should have. It was really good though anyway and people liked it. I made a "twig" for Lyric without the cookies which she is allergic to. I think next year I probably will only make it for Yule.

So, where was I? Oh yes, we had just arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's house. We had a great time there! It really was a great Christmas. I had lots of wine, we had tons of food, we had tons and tons of desserts. We played the dice game, which is so fun. In case you don't know what that is; we all buy reasonably priced gifts, or we give things from our own house that we don't want anymore but are nice, or we buy things at a thrift store, or we make something. We wrap them up and color code them for men, women, and both. Most people bring multiple gifts but we try to not spend more then $10.00 to $15.00 per person. So there are three big piles of gifts, and we all sit in a circle and send the dice around, one pan of dice going one way, the other pan of dice going the other way. When someone shakes doubles, they choose a gift, but don't open it. When all the gifts are gone, a time limit is set, like 5 or 10 minutes, and we continue to shake. Then if you get doubles, you get to steal gifts from each other. The gifts are still wrapped at this point. This is where it gets fun, because people are always after one or two gifts, and they keep stealing that same gift from each other, even though they have no idea what is inside. It's kind of funny sometimes which gift becomes the gift to steal. Anyway, this year I got one of those gifts and it was supper cool! It was a bread and oil set, which had a bread tray, an oil bottle, and four small dishes for oil. It was very nice and well worth the stealing back and forth. My mom got it at the thrift store for only $2.00! In general though, the gift we are all after is usually just a dumb thing nobody ends up caring about. I really like the dice game instead of the secret Santa idea, and I hope my family keeps doing it because it is so fun. Also, it really makes it so it's not about the gifts, but more about us all getting together and interacting. We trade or give things away at the end after we open them too, and I just think it's a really good way to do gift giving for a large group, while keeping the focus off of the actual gifts.

After all that, we played board games until pretty late. We had more wine, and more desserts, and my grandma's homemade chex mix. My grandma won one of my Aunts pies at the dice game, so we cut into that and it was heavenly. We all had a great time and I barely even saw Owen all night, he was so often playing with the kids in the other room. When we got home we posed Owen in front of the tree with all his gifts. It was really very fun, but a very full day of activities.