My Goal

...is to be in bed by midnight tonight. That will be much earlier than the past several nights and I'm really needing to pull it off if I can!

SO! Christmas! We had such a nice one. I had little twinges of loneliness, if you can call it that, throughout the day, but only minor ones. (I hate not getting with other family for Christmas!) I would quickly remind myself of how much fellowship I've had with friends and especially my very own family this month and I would instantly feel how BLESSED I am. :-)

The morning started at 6:38, I believe. We had told the kids they couldn't get up before 6:30 and Joe nailed it pretty close. I had slept on the couch, as is my Christmas Eve tradition (I LOVE to sleep on the couch with all the Christmas lights on everywhere--been doing it since I was a teenager), and Joe came bounding out of the room declaring what time it was and saying it was time to GET UP. We made him wait a few minutes so I could wash my face and James could build a fire, then he went to wake up Katie and Sam.

He wasn't entirely successful! Ha! They were soooooo tired (especially Katie after staying up until midnight to watch a movie with us!) and kept asking for just a few more minutes of sleep. Knowing it was Christmas morning they drug themselves from their beds and into the living room, but it was still a few minutes before they were actually "with us," if you know what I mean.



Even Hershey was too tired for Christmas! He's usually a definite morning dog--sooooo happy and excited first thing in the morning. But he was NOT ready to get up yet. James had gotten him some dog treats for Christmas (long story--has to do with tenderhearted Joe) and he was too lazy to even SIT UP to eat them! Can you imagine?! I've never seen a dog laying down and eating! Ha!

I must say... this was a really, really great Christmas. Usually when Christmas is over with I get almost a cruddy feeling inside over all of the STUFF, the MONEY that's been spent (usually by certain relatives) and the TOYS coming out our ears. It's sooooo not what Christmas is about and I always feel terrible about all of the excess and materialism of it all. But this year was so much better! Each kid got two, maybe three toys, and then several other "useful" things that will last much longer and be much more practical. It was still more than anybody needed, but it's hard to stop that when you get Grandparents involved! Ha! Anyway, here we go!

Passing out the presents. I love the view of the sky out the window. This family seldom sees a sunrise, so I really enjoyed it! :-)

After tearing into the stockings...

We had gotten each boy their own tool box, stuffed with "real" tools. They were both sooooo excited!

Sam was actually dancing with excitement over this shoot 'em toy.

And he was gracious enough to act pleased with the clothes he received, too.

Katie got a cooking set from my Mom, complete with measuring spoons and cups--which were promptly put to use later that day!

And here she is getting her first view of her new desk. She LOVES it, as we knew she would. In fact, she spent most of the day in front of it yesterday, working with the sewing kit she had also received. I have a picture of her there... but her hair is a wreck and the room is messy and there's an unmade bed behind her. So I'll have to take another picture when she and her room are looking a little better!

Here's James with the book from Mom & Dad and the hatchet Joe & Sam had helped me buy "from them." Kate helped buy some heavy gloves for working with the wood and I had also gotten him a little firewood rack to keep by the stove. A nice and useful combination! :-)

Joe's been dying to have a pocket knife and he finally got one, in his stocking. He also got his first cut, of course. :-)

And here he is playing with his remote controlled spider. Not just any spider, mind you, but a giant Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula--one of Joe's personal favorites. (He's been driving us CRAZY with that dumb thing!)

And Sam busting bottles with his new toy. Just so you know, those aren't liquor bottles; one says "tonic" and the other is some sort of milk. ;-)

Here's James reading up on how to finish that garage of ours...

Ha! I loved this! As soon as we'd gotten all of the presents out from under the tree and things had settled down a bit Hershey went and curled up on the tree skirt for his next nap. Come on, everybody--"Aaawwwwww! That's so cute..." ;-)

The boys had received real binoculars and canteens and had to go outside to try them out.

Don't have any pictures of me, but I can tell you--I hit the Christopher & Banks jackpot! Ha! GREAT clothes and even two gift cards. :-) I also got a really, really nice set of pots and pans from James' folks. My folks had gotten me my traditional Christmas puzzle and Catch Phrase, since mine had died at our Ladies' Retreat in October. That was cool, but it was REALLY cool when I found the note inside the wrapper. Mom had bought the game and taken it to Virginia Ladies' Retreat a few months ago and everybody there played with it, then wrote great notes thanking me for sharing my Christmas present with them and telling me how great it was! Ha! Is that cool, or what?! It made it so much more fun than just receiving the game. I love it that it's already broken in and everybody had a blast knowing they were playing with my gift--two months ahead of time! Ha!

Christmas dinner. ~sigh~ I was so not up for it! Ha! It feels like I have been cooking and cleaning my life away this month and I just dreaded doing another giant meal. But it's TRADITION and I'm not very good at breaking with those. Although after seeing that Emilee did it and went Italian for their dinner I was thinking maybe I should have come up with another plan, too! It's just SO MUCH WORK when there are no other women around and I was tired of the same things we've been eating for a month or more. The clean up is the part I dread the most. Takes forever! Anyway, I did it and everything turned out really good. James took this picture of me finishing whipping up the best ham gravy I've ever made. (It turned out GREAT, Mom--you would have been so proud! Ha!)

And here is Miss Rue, working on her Berry Best Pie. She'd found the recipe in Daughterhood By Design (a magazine for girls, teaching them how to be good girls and mostly to have good relationships with their fathers) and had been dying to try it out. The cooking set from my Mom came just in time--she loves the chef hat and apron!

We had a nice, relaxing afternoon and I was able to put together the new puzzle Mom had sent. It's a lot less pieces than we're used to doing, but it was still fun. And I LOVE the picture!!! The longer I worked on it and studied it, the more I liked it. It's just so different from the usual nativity scene. I love that Jospeh is holding the baby and letting Mary sleep. What a guy! :-) Mary needed some rest, you know?! It makes it seem more "real" to me somehow. And the two of them look so different than they're usually portrayed. So... non-Catholic! They just look like real people and the scene is just beautiful. Thanks, Mom!!! :-)

I stayed up last night and watched The Star of Christmas (I love that one and hadn't seen it yet this year) while I worked on calendar pages. I finished up May & June for both calendars. Wa-Hoo! Half way there! I was up, wa-a-a-a-a-ay too late though. I've got to get these done so I can get back to normal life.

At least I've got a truly wonderful husband though! Because of my late night he got up and took care of breakfast and what not with the kids and let me sleep. I think I heard breakfast consisted of sugar cookies and milk, but hey, I was able to sleep! Ha! And it's Christmastime, you know?!

We've played lots of games yesterday and today and have just really made the best of a HOLIDAY. It's been great.

Oh! And today we built Sam's pirate ship. It's what we had gotten him for just a few dollars at Hobby Lobby earlier this week. I oversaw the project and it was great fun. Sam let Joe help him hammer the pieces together. (I only sacrificed one finger to the project and it's feeling much better already! Ha!) Then he let Kate and Joe help him paint it.

It turned out sooooo cool! I love it! I did minimal painting myself, but I did tape off some lines for Sam to follow and it really turned out much better than I ever would have expected. Look!

Is that cool, or what?! He LOVES it and has bee playing with it non-stop since we finished it. He doesn't have any little pirates though, so he uses his cowboys and indians. It's hilarious.

"You indians are in jail and if I hear you talking you're going to stay in jail for 26 more minutes."

*Whispering* "Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk."

"Okay, you're talking--26 more minutes!"

"WHAT?!"

Ha! What a goof!

The boys went outside to play for a while today, so I sat down with Katie and watched White Christmas. She's been dying to do that with me since we can't watch it as a family. Joe won't have anything to do with it. It has girly romance stuff in it and he becomes nearly irate if you suggest he should watch it. ;-) Anyway, I worked on the calendars while we watched and was able to finish up on the July pages. We had breakfast for dinner (bacon, eggs, bisquits), so that was nice for a change. We haven't had that in a while since the Mom around here hasn't been up early enough to make breakfast lately! Ha! Tonight after I put the kids to bed I was able to get the August calendar page done, too. Wa-Hoo! I keep waiting for that page that I'm going to look at and say, "Wow, that is SO CUTE!" Haven't got there yet! Only four more months to go. I may not have any adorable pages this time! Oh well. At least they've all got pictures of the kids on them. That's what matters. I watched the Thursday night session of the Assembly while I worked tonight. It was so great! It was the Mission Program and I was blessed all over again. I actually finished working and got all my mess cleaned up before it was over with, so I sat down with a snack and finished the rest of the session. Is it wrong to get blessed while you're eating pumpkin pie and sipping spiced cider???

Hhmmm. I didn't make it to bed by midnight. Oh well. I'm pretty close, so I'll settle! Later!