Christmas... just slightly belated.

Christmas was pretty good this year, despite the fact that I worked four days straight leading up to Christmas, including the day of.  But since I am going per diem at work starting in February, this will be the last Christmas I’ll hopefully ever work.  It made things a bit chaotic trying to get everything all ready, figure out who’s doing what, going where and coming over at what time.  Luckily the boys don’t get the concept of Christmas morning, Santa and stockings yet, so me being gone by the time they got up was more business as normal, versus any sort of disappointment.  We celebrated Christmas eve at my Grandmother’s house so they had new toys to occupy them, plus they got a Lightning McQueen power wheels car that a friend of ours had outgrown.  Of course I got a message saying not to worry about the chunk of paint that was missing from the wall and from then on McQueen has been banished to the garage or yard.  Apparently Josh is having a hard time grasping the concept of steering, so he pretty much just hit the throttle as hard as he can and goes in a line forwards and then in reverse over and over.  And I have to add that while he’s doing this, he is laughing maniacally.  I’m pleased to report that he’s getting better about stopping before he slams into things, unless he thinks he’s put it into reverse and it’s actually still in gear.  But that’s why it’s now an outside car, and why I’m not worried about trying to re-do my living room for many more years.

 

The boys stayed in their Christmas jammies all day and David got the place all cleaned up for my family to come over for dinner that evening.  David and I had exchanged our gifts Christmas Eve after the littles were snug in bed with their sugar plum dreams.  I got him an apple slicer/peeler exactly like what he grew up using on the farm and a booked massage for later in the week.  He got me a couple pairs of earrings and a magnetic suction clamp for the ipad.  Apparently he was given some guff for getting me a ‘gift’ like that, but it was something that has been really helpful.  I can attach it to the counter or to the cupboard door to have the pad up where I need it when using it for recipes, and it will also hold the pad in the car for the boys to watch a movie on without someone fighting over who gets to hold it.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have loved the diamonds and pearls he’s given me in the past, but two of the best gifts he’s ever given me is a touch lamp for my nightstand and a super-soft red snuggie.  Every time I sleepily swipe my hand in the general vicinity of my lamp I can turn it on and off as long as my finger brushes against the surface.  So handy!  And since I keep the house rather cold (I hate opening up utility bills this time of year) wearing a snuggie while reading a book in bed is quite nice.  These sort of practical gifts really do make me thankful that my husband (without any prompting from me) thought about what would make my life easier/better and purchased those items as a gift.  Our tight budget keeps me from purchasing such items during the normal course of the year.

 

I should have taken a picture of it, but I tried hard to package the simple gifts our family exchanged in a somewhat pretty way that clearly wasn’t done by a child.  I hand stamped out gift tags (cut out from scraps from my cardboard recycling bin) and tied up boxes with brown hemp cord.  I also put some items in bags with tissue paper and hand painted a flour sack towel to wrap a loaf of artisan bread and raspberry jam in for my grandmother.  I’m entering a rather crafty stage in life (I even got a new (to me) sewing machine) and am enjoying seeing something pretty come from my own imagination and creating things.  After a day of wrestling, wiping bottoms and demonstrating how dinosaurs roar, it’s nice to make a delicate paper something, or paint a (very) simple design on fabric.

 

For the boys we kept our family gifts very low-key and inexpensive.  Josh got a tool play set and Ben got a set of fabric farm animals with a barn.  Sam got a set of plush foxes, which it turns out that he actually likes looking at and chewing on.  His gift was more of a last minute (oh, wait, we forgot to buy something for Sam!) when I remembered that I had picked up the cute foxes at Ikea (where we also got the farm animals) last summer and had never actually gotten them down to put in the nursery.

 

Side note: buying Christmas presents long in advance is nice for the budget, but it was REALLY hard not to buy more things as I kept seeing all these cool toy deals pop up for things that I knew they boys would love.  But I was strong and resisted the lure.  Except that I bought too many Christmas books.  But books should never count against a budget, right?

 

The boys were of course spoiled with many toys from both sides of the family.  After the hub hub of the holidays settle down and tax season starts in earnest, we’ll put up the big cool camouflage fort/tent that David’s brother sent. They each got a little robot, new tracks for their wooden train set, Angry Birds snacks, books and some new clothes.

And now for the photo dump.  Many, many pictures of my adorable children to follow.  You have been warned.

Ack, the cuteness of Sam just makes me want to squeal just a little.  But look how big his hands are!

Trying ever so hard to patiently wait for the presents.

In defense of those ugly shoes I'm wearing: I came straight from work where on a busy day I probably walk 3-4 miles.  Got to have comfy shoes.

Our boys were the only ones up at Grandma's house this year, but you couldn't tell by the amounts of shredded paper all over the house.

Christmas Eve night at our house.

I said 'hug your brother' not strangle him.

Ben really got into opening presents this year.  In fact, he found my stash of presents a few days before Christmas and opened up a couple.

Am I the only one who finds it funny to position this fox so that it is lurking over my baby?

The aftermath, round 1

David: Josh, do not slam that car into my shins... again.

I couldn't capture how gleefully he was careening back and forth in his car.

A Christmas Day nap.

It was a really wonderful Christmas.  It gets better every year as the boys become more excited and anticipating of what's to come.  We also feel very blessed and grateful to live close enough to family to spend the holidays with them.  We miss seeing our Yorgesen relations though.  Perhaps we can organize a big Christmas get together when David's parents return home from their church mission to South Africa.