December started out with a whirlwind of preparing for the BIG DAY! There was the usual hustle and bustle of buying, wrapping, shipping and stashing. Throw in a few parties, some for kids, some for families and one for adults only – WAHOO! Of course that one was a work deal, but we took advantage of the babysitter and had fun anyway. A tradition we have done since Lilly was born is to make or at least decorate Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve. Generally I make the cookies a day in advance and have the table all set up for Jim to come in and frost and decorate with the kids. I try to use that time to catch up on the other 9 million things that need to be completed before the stores close! This year Jim decided he wanted to add on to our family fun. His goal was to make “nuts and bolts” to give co-workers, friends and neighbors. Apparently it was a family tradition of his that on Christmas Eve he and his siblings would go around his home town and visit with people as they were handing out the goods. I too have a favorite holiday memory surrounding this particular goody. Mrs. Boyce always made the best “trash”. We would eagerly await its arrival to the house. Gregg and I would hide it from Daddy! It was that good! I have so many childhood memories surrounding food that we either made or received at Christmas. Peanut butter balls, cheese balls, the tiny ham and cheese biscuits we had EVERY Christmas morning, sausage balls my Granny Jones used to make and Mrs. Sylvester's cheese straws! Making myself hungry just thinking about it.
Anyway, we had a big ole batch of the stuff. I got the containers and then we hit the streets. Of course growing up, Jim and his brother and sisters would deliver their wares about dark. We didn’t have that luxury. Between nap time, church at 3:00pm and an open house to attend at 5:00pm the children decided 8:00am was the perfect time! So we loaded up the gaiter and took off. Most of our neighbors were not all that happy to see us. Ben even tried to make up for it by giving some people two and three containers. Hopefully the taste won them over. There were a couple of lucky people that got theirs around lunchtime, I am sure they are thankful they don’t live closer.
As stated last year our ELF ON A SHELF's name is Kringle. He is one pushy dude. He also isn't that great at finding original places to hide. Of course that could be our fault. We totally forgot about him 3 nights in a row and the kids were super quick to point out that he had not moved and perhaps he was stuck. I told them more likely their behavior had been so bad that Kringle was trying to do them a solid by NOT reporting back to Santa every night. Thankfully his unexplained absence from the elf roll call and what the implications of that would mean was not brought up. Not that it changed anything, but we didn't make that mistake again. I am glad we don't have to deal with him until next Dec. 1st!
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| A little pre-Christmas Love for the Camera - is Kringle getting this? |
The past couple of weeks, Lilly had been working on a loose tooth. She was really starting to sweat loosing it while we were at Wintergreen and the Tooth Fairy wouldn’t know where she was and therefore would not come for it. I tried to tell her that the tooth has a homing beacon in it and the Tooth Fairy would be able to find it regardless of where she is in the world, but I wasn’t getting any traction. I offered to pull it. Surprise, she said no. As we got closer and closer to Christmas Eve, I kept aggressively wiggling it. Purely selfishness on my part – I didn’t want to lug the Tooth Fairy stuff to Virginia. See the Tooth Fairy writes a note and usually deposits glitter all over your face while she is searching for the tooth and leaving your present. Before bedtime on Christmas Eve, Lilly comes to me and begs me to pull it. I said are you sure? Sooo quick as a wink, I pop it out of there. Of course there was some blood, because it really and truthfully had a few more days in it, but no pain, so she rolled with it and recovered pretty quickly.
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| The next day you could already see the new tooth! |
Finally we got the children to bed and we waited about 2 hours before we brought out the loot. So after all the work to get the presents down, placed around the tree and slapping the bows on I took off my elf suit and put on my Tooth Fairy wings. I had a Susan B Anthony dollar, but since she wasn’t all that excited about the gold Sacajawea one before, I had a back up – a pink gumball. Big deal right – it is to our kids. They LOVE getting gumballs. I had bought a big tube of various sizes to put in their stockings, but after scraping gum off Lucy’s arm the day before - they weren’t getting it. But loosing a tooth is special and it was Christmas Eve, so I gave in.
Christmas morning was not how I imagined. Lilly came sprinting down with the Tooth Fairy’s note and “quarter” asking me to “read it mommy read it!” I told her that apparently the Tooth Fairy had bumped into Santa Claus downstairs and he had share a cookie with her. I told her that it wasn’t a quarter the Tooth Fairy had left, but actually a dollar coin. Upon closer inspection she conceded that while yes, it was a woman on the face of it, her hairstyle didn’t do her any favors. With a shrug of her shoulders she said “Looked like George Washington to me”. She had not seen the gumball that was left on the note, mainly because Ben had woken up first and was carrying it around in his pocket! That did not go over well. Somehow or another he ended up eating it and you would have thought the world had stopped spinning on its axis. Hello child, it is CHRISTMAS MORNING. We could not officially begin the festivities until we had fished another gumball out of the secret stash. About that time I will admit, I was beginning to question the wisdom of buying the gumballs.
Let’s move on. We finally got around to opening presents. I had originally wanted to sort the presents while we were placing them under the tree, Jim disagreed with this and I was just too tired and irritated by midnight to fight him. I had wrapped all the “Santa” presents in solid green or red paper and presents from family members and friends were wrapped in prints. I thought that way I could keep up with things that needed thank you notes. I was feeling pretty smug and patting myself on the back about that idea, but upon reflection, I need to take it a step farther. Next year I intend to wrap each child’s “Santa” presents in a different color. Seem like every present I pulled out did not have Lilly’s name on it. I know they each got the same number of presents because I had figured that out the year before, but she was bemoaning the fact that she had nothing to open. I swear I could just wrap up air and she would be happy! Maybe I will try that next year too! Once we finished unwrapping all the gifts, Oscar happily moved back to his position under the tree. He was highly perturbed that we had not left him a little cubby hole in the midst of the presents as we had done in previous years. Sorry Oscar, I was on bow duty not arranging presents under the tree duty.
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| Oscar pre-present frenzy |
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| Oscar back on station |
We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then started to pack up to hit the road! We had been invited back to Wintergreen Ski Resort in Virginia by Jim’s parents. Two of Jim’s sisters and their families were coming too so the kids were excited about the prospect of playing with the cousins. And we were getting to ski twice within 12 months – unheard of! Our goal was to be on the road by 1:00pm. We pulled out of the driveway at 1:07pm. Not bad!
I was right, this is going to take more than one entry. Talk about your cliffhangers!
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