It's over already?

Well, the last six weeks or so have been a whirlwind of activities. There have been many times through those days when I thought "I should blog about this..." but then the next activity arrived and the blogging never happened.

So here I sit at work and since I am only one of two people in my office this morning, I figured now was the perfect time. Rather than try to recreate all that has been happening, I will treat you to a peek into our Christmas Celebrations.

This year, we specifically made ZERO plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We did all of our running around and visiting family last weekend so that we did not have to add that extra stress of getting loaded up and driving somewhere to our world. That made such a difference that we will probably continue that tradition. My Big Human did take all of the small humans out for a couple of hours in the afternoon on Christmas Eve under the guise of feeding our friends' kitties but it was really an excuse to go to Dunkin' Donuts. While they were gone, I was able to pull out the rest of the Santa presents and get them wrapped so I didn't have to stay up late that night finishing everything.

We had an early dinner of Special K Loaf, mashed potatoes and corn and then headed to Christmas Eve Mass. We arrived about 20 minutes later than we had planned to, but still 10 minutes before Mass actually started and the church was so packed that there were no more seats. So we had to stand for Mass. Which caused some grumbling among the small humans but it was fine overall. Oh and at some point during that afternoon, I had picked up a wonderful stomach bug and was feeling VERY NOT GREAT but I railled when we got home and made homemade hot chocolate from the recipe on the side of the Hershey's Cocoa box (because my mom used to make it for us when we were little) and we gathered in the living room in our PJs to drink the hot chocolate and open one present each. The small humans had picked out special new PJs for me when shopping with the Big Human and then they had talked me into buying PJs for the Big Human when they were out shopping with me. Boy, they are sneaky! So we opened those and the small humans opened one present each from us. They were all books. We gave the oldest small girl human, who just turned 11, "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.". I have been excitedly looking forward to passing that book on to the girls and now seemed like the perfect time. Then I read the story of Jesus's birth from Luke and The Night Before Christmas and we all headed to bed. Well, the small humans got in bed and fell asleep rather quickly and the Big Human fell asleep too but I laid in bed and did some internets until I was sure the small humans were asleep.

Once I was sure everyone was asleep, I got everything out of it's hiding spot and prepared for Santa's arrival. It was tricky getting everything out under the tree, stuffing the stockings, writing the note from Santa to the kids, nibbling cookies and carrots and celery all while not waking any small humans but the Big Human and I were able to accomplish that. That is, until about 1:30 AM when the Big Human came back from a midnight run to CVS and tripped over a dining room chair. Which caused a big clatter that promptly woke up the oldest small girl human. She in turn woke up the oldest small boy human and the youngest small girl human. We convinced them that they needed to go back to sleep which they did until about 4:30 AM. We all got up at 5 AM and had started opening presents by 5:30 AM. They were all very happy with their haul and spent the rest of the day until it was time to go to their mom's house playing with their new toys. It was a fabulous day. Pics will be on my facebook soon.

Happy Holidays to everyone!