A Christmas Recap

Despite my wish and promise for the most awesomest Christmas ever, I think there were some slight failures.  I remind myself that we are all here (except for Abigail, of course), healthy, with no financial concerns.  My work schedule shifted from reduced to full time this past spring and the impact of that transition was felt this holiday season.  The weight of it threatening to pull me down.  There were moments when I threw up my hands in defeat.  I can't do it all.

Emily really, really wanted to pay a visit to Santa this year.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, when we thought we were off to a great start, we brought the girls to a display of Christmas trees.  There was a Santa walking around and it was all a bit chaotic and in the end, we weren't able to talk to him.  He seemed to have disappeared.  Don't worry, sweetie, I told her.  There's a lot of time before Christmas.  We'll see Santa.

The Sunday before Christmas found us with our last chance to visit with Santa.  We tried but we had planned poorly and it was too crowded.  We were given a return time that was too late and I hadn't yet finished my shopping.  Maybe we can see Santa Monday or Tuesday night.  But what about dance?  Crap, hadn't thought about that.  Okay, here's what we're going to do.  I'm home on Wednesday.  We'll go then.  First thing.

And we did.









Hey, let's take a picture with this bear.



Emily was getting over a cold and was a bit tired.  I call this the Santa mug shot.



Unlike past years, all presents were wrapped prior to Christmas Eve but I did end up scrambling to finish cleaning.  There's always cleaning.  Rich's mom attended mass with us and then we all, including one of Rich's sisters, had a Chinese food dinner, which is somewhat of a tradition for Rich's family.  We were at church for about an hour and a half and the girls were very well behaved.

And then it was Christmas morning.





Allie was hysterical with that Ken doll.  She also received a tuxedo outfit for him that had a rose on a stem.  She said that it was in case he wanted to Tango with Barbie.  Ah, yeah, so moving on. . .



I tried to take pictures but there was so much to do.  We hosted Christmas dinner again for my side of the family.  It was a good day.  Loud and fun.









So what did the girls receive for presents?  Mainly Barbies, books, clothes and doll accessories.  We've promised them a gymnastics bar.  No, not one of those huge ones.  Just a small practice bar.  Still working on that so there was nothing for them to unwrap.  And yes, they wanted books for Christmas.  We ordered from Scholastic through the school and Anna's teacher was able to pass them along to us without the girls knowing what was going on.  We love Scholastic - you can't find those prices in book stores.  The girls unwrapped the first 48 books in the Magic Tree House series and all 9 Little House on the Prairie books.        

Until next year, Santa.  Until next year. . .