Christmas

It's almost New Years and I'm just now finding the time to write about Christmas! Ok, I'll admit, I've had the time, but instead of doing the things I *SHOULD* be doing, I've been playing with all the awesome Christmas kids that we...errr...the kids got. Har har. I'll have to mention those later though. Lets start with Christmas Eve Eve... aka the day before Christmas Eve. We continued our tradition of taking the kids to the Big Chrismas tree at Zilker. Last year we discovered the secret to missing the ridiculous miles of traffic was to get there BEFORE dark. That was the best discovery ever. This year we topped it by packing an ice chest of drinks and picking up pizza on the way, now THAT was genius! (Marks idea of course) We got there just before dark and JUST before they started charging $7.00 for parking. SWEET! We ate our pizza, and funnel cake (gotta have funnel cake) it got dark and the lights turned on just for us. :) It was a perfect evening. Everyone was in the best of spirits, and we really couldn't have planned it any better.

On Christmas Eve Nana and Jason came to spend the night, like every year. We had to miss David this year though. He's a newlywed with a baby on the way now, so I'm afraid the Christmas mornings with David are probably over. :( Who knows, maybe I'm wrong. Back to Christmas Eve...Nana brought all the fixins for a special dinner, turkey, dressing, homemade cranberry sauce (my favorite), sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh green beans, her famous Ruthie rolls, and good ol White Zin. She even brought Christmas linens for the table. Yes, we had cloth napkins, a rare occasion that MUST be noted. What a treat! I remembered to pull out my Christmas china this year, woohooo, so we had a fancy dinner on fancy china this year. :) After dinner we were all too stuffed for pie, of which there was plenty, but we did manage to make room for egg nog (with the nog, as Nana would say), and the kids had the non-nog. We sat around the table and asked each other questions from Nana and Big Daddy's It's A Wonderful Life board game, that was fun, but I think some of us need to study a little more next time, if we plan on beating Nana. I think she's probably watched that movie 50 times! We put the kids to bed shortly after putting the reindeer food in the yard and leaving grahm crackers and soy milk (Ashley says Santa may be lactose intolerant like Grams and uncle Jason). The kids were so excited and anxious to get to sleep so that morning would come quickly. After all the wine and nog we were anxious to get all of our wrapping over with so we could catch some z's.

Christmas morning was picture perfect. The kids were up just before 7 and patiently waited at the top of the stairs while momma and daddy slowly made their way to the coffee pot, and set the scene with Christmas music and lights. Dad picked up Eddie Faye on his way and they joined us around 8ish. The kids were so excited about everything they opened, while we were rewarded with sweet smiles and plenty of generous thank yous. Most of the morning was spent either jumping on the mini-tramp, or hopping around on Ashley's new X-box dance mat. Mark was busy trying to find food he could slice with his new mandalin and I was occupied putting together my new Kitchen Aix mixer and trying to figure out what I could mix up. By noon, Frank and Nicola showed up and dad and Ruthie were beat and ready to go. Frank and Nicola spent a lot of time playing with the kids, which the kids just devoured. By the time they left we were all ready for a good long nap.

Mom and Andy came over just after 5. We were able to have round 2 of the spectacular dinner from the night before, thanks to Nana. This time we made room for pie though. :) We had a really nice time with Grams and Pops, and the kids were more than happy to show off all of the wonderful new gifts that Santa brought. By 10:30 Grams and Pops were gone and we were making our way to bed. It was a beautiful Christmas Day, and I wouldn't change a thing about it, except to have all of the ones we love together.