Christmas Report

My mom and I finished our Christmas projects on Christmas Eve this year. That is better than last year when I was finishing Christmas morning.

The evening of Christmas Eve we went to church for the Christmas Eve service where I had volunteered to take pictures of families all dressed up in their Christmas gear. Then came my family. The picture you see is all my husbands family...from his parents down anyway. My lovely niece in the corner is copying her facinating older cousin. No, she doesn't have autism. I thought it was totally funny. I'm not sure my SIL thought so, though.

From the church, we went to Tony's parent's house to have dinner and open presents. Thiis is not usually my favorite thing to do, being that there are 4 two-year-olds (not to mention my other two) in their tiny condo. I think that it turned out pretty well, though. They took out a couch to make more room. Some of us had to sit on the floor, but it wasn't as cramped. I'm usually more comfortable on the floor anyway.

The kids were loaded with all kinds of junk. Their toy supply increased dramatically, as it does every year at Christmas. Some funny stuff happened. Becca opened one toy, a Barbie, and took it to me and said, "look mom, it's a hoochie Barbie" speaking of the doll's revealing outfit. You see, I have had several conversations with my daughter about appropriate clothing, and she picked up on the one time that I used those words to describe a inappropriately dressed Barbie doll. I wanted to laugh, but Becca probably would have taken that the wrong way (not to mention the person who gave her said Barbie), so I qietly told her that we would fix it later. A bit of extra material sewn in all the right places fixed the outfit just fine, the moment, however uncomfortable at the time, was quite funny.

My kids were really pretty good that night, so I don't really have much to complain about. My nieces were pretty good, too. I think that one parent wished her daughter was better behaved, but I thought she did pretty well considering how exciting Christmas is and being with her cousins. That was kind of awkward sometimes, but I kept my mouth shut pretty well I think.

Christmas morning was good. My kids woke up at about 8, or a little after. They were excited, but they slept in. That was a nice present.

The kids loved the presents that we made. Ali took all the things that we gave her to dress up in and put them all on. She was really cute.

The dolls were a big hit, too. My pictures were a little blurry because my auto-focus still doesn't work on my camera, and I was just trying to get the reactions and I didn't get the focus fast enough. I'm a little bummed, but you can still see the reactions, even if the quality isn't that great.

Another great laugh on Christmas was the package to one of the girl's toys. It was a set of cooking utinsils for their play kitchen. Well, you can read the box. Apparently is was translated to English...badly. I didn't really notice anything other than the price (it was only three bucks, I guess I know why now). Tony noticed it and asked me for the camera. We were all laughing.

That evening we went to my grandmother's house and met my younger brother and his wife there and exchanged gifts with all of them. My grandmother is notorious for her strange gifts (I don't think my husband will ever get over the wooden barbecue skewers that she gave to him once...though he has fond memories of his own grandmother's funny gifts, too). This year my husband and I received a laundry rack. Yeah, one of those things that takes up space to lay out your sweaters on. I've never used one. My husband knew that he wasn't supposed to put sweaters in the drier, but I don't think he has ever dried them any other way. I rarely dry anything any other way. Anyone need something to take up space? We also received a book that we have gotten from her at least twice before, and a cd of something that I would never listen to. My girls all scored dolls and Micah got...I don't remember, but he didn't play with it over there, he was too busy playing with a set of cars that she keeps over at her house for him.

Overall, it was a pretty successful Christmas. Loads of fun. We still have more with my brother and his family coming down here to sunny (ha!) California from the snowy Washington state. That will be fun. Hope your Christmas was merry!