Saturday, December 27, 2008

Xmas Day Recap

Rich and I helped "Santa" set up the girls' new kitchen and other toys on Christmas Eve after the girls went to bed. We removed all other toys from the family room in hopes of keeping the mess to a minimum. The only gifts that were wrapped were some books (which the girls had NO interest in unwrapping anyway.)



Our usual morning routine is to bring the girls down to the family room, change diapers and cath in there and then go to the dining room for breakfast. We decided to change diapers in their bedroom and bring them directly to the dining room for breakfast BEFORE they saw the family room. We knew that once they saw those new toys, there would be no interest in food.

I took this picture right after we let them loose in the family room.



Here's Anna playing in the new kitchen.



Allie with a new Elmo doll. She LOVES Elmo.



Emily pushing another Elmo in the doll stroller.



It took approximately 15 minutes for the room to look like this:



and this:



All in all, the girls seemed to have had a fun day. They enjoyed their new toys and playing with their cousins. Rich and I, on the other hand, had fun with the girls but were also a little stressed and sad. We hosted dinner at our house. Our guests included Grandpa, Grammy, Uncle Dan, Aunt Katie, Beth, Gracie, Uncle Pat, Aunt Molly and Aunt Edel.
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The kid's table:
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The girls were so involved in socializing with Beth that they refused to eat much. We thought they were behaving well until I walked into the kitchen and saw Allie's food sprayed out about ten feet behind her chair. Oh, well.
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And in case you're wondering, Rich and I don't really exchange gifts. That started two years ago when we didn't want to celebrate Christmas and I wasn't physically able to shop. We have a household where if one of us needs or wants something, we just go buy it. I did give Rich some books and he gave me a pair of Uggs, which are soooooooo warm. I was in desparate need of a pair of warm boots. If you live in New England, you know that those duck boots don't provide any warmth at all.
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When Rich and I went to bed Christmas night, I told him how I feel that every holiday will hold a little bit of sadness. We couldn't even make it over to the cemetery to visit with Abbey on Thursday. We went yesterday on our way home from work. I hate how it looks there in the winter. No matter how many times we clear away those dead leaves, they always blow back over.

1 comment:

Chantel said...

I sobbed after coming home from a long Christmas day. It was fun, but always sad and always a constant reminder of what should be.

At one point Christmas day, I had to walk into the other room when we opened an ornament that had 3 names on it. (I had to walk into the other room because I wanted to throw it in the fireplace since Curits was obviously absent). It just always sucks.

That being said, the pictures of your daughters enjoying their kitchen brought huge smiles here. .