Without a hitch

Well, we pulled Christmas off without a hitch, I'm happy to say. More than I can say for Steph, who had a fire in her oven and had Christmas at a Chinese buffet. I swear she does these things on purpose just knowing that it'll make a great blog entry later!

Anyway, back to MY Christmas. I woke Caleb up on Christmas Eve, after Sam and Peter had fallen asleep, so he could help set out the Santa presents. He was really excited but wasn't feeling well (after all the food and sugar at Logan's house) so he just set the presents out, ate a carrot that had been left out for the reindeer (he didn't even want the brownies...that's how much sugar he had already had), and went right back to bed.

We had made a deal with the kids to not get us up 'til 7:30am, so that was nice. Sam and I actually got up at 7:00 (I never get to sleep in because my full bladder wakes me up early anyway) and we started making monkey bread for breakfast. The kids were really excited and happy with everything they got. Sam said it was the best Christmas ever. We got him a cellphone. So, apparently now he is not the only 5th grader in the world who doesn't have one! (It was only $10/month and the phone was free so I figured, what the heck, now I can keep track of him when he and Caleb are walking home from school and shows up a half hour late...a story for another day...). The downside to this is he is dying to use it and no one has his number and he has no one to call. So now he uses it to call me and Dave constantly, even when we're at home. It's like an intercom system. It doesn't bother me because I keep my phone in my purse usually and just ignore it. But Dave keeps his phone on him all the time and so it is ringing in his pocket constantly.

Hello?
Hi Dad, it's me, Sam.
Uh, hi Sam.
What time is dinner?
In about an hour.
OK, thanks, bye.
Bye.

Stuff like this goes on all day long. Caleb received 4 more Lego Aqua Raiders sets which completes his collection. He spends hours and hours putting this stuff together and he really loves it. He likes the idea of being a collector and is very excited now to have a complete collection of something. Peter got a variety of things...he is pretty easy to please. The one big mistake I got him (via Grandpa Capener) was Moon Sand. It is supposed to be the "new" play-dough. He loves play-dough and the moon sand is supposed to be better somehow because it never dries out, etc. I HATE it! Why did it never occur to me that it would be...sandy! It is just like wet sand and I'm glad he loves playing with it but, oh my gosh! It makes a HUGE mess and there's colored sand all over my kitchen table and dining room! Aaaaargh! At least he's not doodling on the computer screen with magic markers, I guess.

Our Christmas dinner was fabulous. Dave bought a very expensive ham and although I had misgivings at first, it was worth every penny! It's the best ham I've ever had. We splurged another $3 and bought the glaze to put on it, which was delicious too. Something happened to me in the middle of the day, though, before we even had dinner. I wasn't sick or anything but it's like a message was finally sent to my brain that said STOP EATING NOW!!!! It was weird, because all my need for sugar, etc. was finally satiated! So I stopped stuffing myself and when dinner time came around, I had a normal sized portion of everything and felt pretty good. Until dessert. Even then I had half of what everybody else ate and I was stuffed sick. Good thing I had to teach a class bright and early the next morning. When I got there, a lady in the front row yelled to me, "Work us HARD"! I guess we're all paying penance for our holiday splurging.



Here is Peter enjoying his gift from Santa: a NASCAR race track.






Left is Caleb and his new Smithsonian crystal growing kit. Another of my "great" ideas. Good thing he has safety goggles and a dad that is happy to help him!

And below is only part of the Christmas Aftermath.