Christmas Review: The "Wait! We had Christmas?" Edition

I know I said I probably wouldn't recap my Christmas vacation since it was so far in the past by now. But.  Since my house is still fully decked out for the holiday--tree and all!--it's still Christmas where I am.

I'll try not to get all "every second play-by-play" but no promises.

So. Friday Dec. 21 (It's the end of the world! Except, not.) was our first day of vacation. As has become our tradition, Sis2 and I met up for a baking day. Last year it was held in my tiny miniscule excuse for a kitchen because her oven was broken. This year, though, we baked in her kitchen.

I didn't realize I was that much taller than Sis2. And yes, those are their pj's underneath the kids' aprons. haha

Now, you can't tell it from this blurry iPhone  picture because I am an awesome actress, but I was actually praying for death most of this day. Miserable from digestive issues, was I. That was the first day of almost a two week thing.

But we made peanut clusters (the kids helped with that), chess squares, pecan tassies, amorretto truffles and mouse cups. I had intended on making mocha almond fudge but I was praying to hard for death to stand at the stove and stir, stir, stir so I still have the ingredients for mocha almond fudge in my "pantry."

I mostly spent the day getting pelted with chocolate by the two kiddos and trying not to cry.

Stupid digestive issues.

Anyway, we still managed to have a lot of fun. The kids had a BLAST helping in the kitchen.

The next couple of days after that was spent at home either curled up in bed or curled up on the couch bemoaning the pain of my issues.

Christmas Eve morning I put on my happy face and went to breakfast with the folks, Emmy and Granny.

Mama had picked up Emmy Friday. Something about Sis1 and BIL wanting their anniversary to themselves so they shipped their kid off for an early Christmas break with the g-parents? But that's okay. We love having our girl with us by herself before her smelly ol' parents arrive. ;)

Anyway, so back to Christmas Eve morning, we all went to breakfast at the Huddle House. I got the huge smokehouse breakfast platter and they seriously undercooked my eggs and forgot the cheese on my hash browns but I ate it and called it good. ;-)

This is the first year of my LIFE that I've ever been included on the big Christmas Eve breakfast out. For YEARS before he died, the Christmas Eve breakfast was something that Paw-Paw Joe always did with Daddy. No wives or kids allowed. The first couple of years AFTER he died, Mama and Granny took Daddy to breakfast. Then last year I think it was just Daddy and Granny. I guess since Emmy was here they decided to let me tag along?

It was nice anyway.

After breakfast we did a little last minute shopping (I got new shoes!) before heading home. Emmy and I hung out in the craft section while we waited for the "adults" to get their junk together.

Then for another first, this was the first year EVER that I didn't have supper or even see the folks Christmas Eve NIGHT. I stopped spending the night there when I moved into my house but I still went and ate supper with them and visited, etc. This year I had assumed would be the same but when they dropped me off at home after the breakfast outing they were all, "See you early tomorrow morning!"

Weird. But that was okay, too. By the time I got home from breakfast I was pretty miserable again so it was nice not to have to go anywhere. So I just hung out at home with my Libs Christmas Eve night and we watched Lifetime Christmas movies and ate candy for supper. haha

So then Christmas morning dawned. Now, remember what the folks told me when they dropped me off? That they'd see me early the next morning? Next year I'm having them specify HOW early. Because even though every other year of my LIFE my parents have always been up around 5-ish on Christmas morning and got MAD AT ME the first Christmas after I moved into the house and didn't get to their house until 6:30 on a Christmas morning...this year?

This year I got up at 4:45, got my shower, opened presents with Libby, loaded the car and was at their house by 5:50. And you know where they all were?

STILL. IN. BED.

Seriously. I pulled up in the driveway and not a single light shown from any window.  I thought it was odd but that maybe Daddy just didn't have the lamp on yet. I mean, he's ALWAYS up around 5. So I trotted up the door and pulled open the screen door, jiggled the knob and...it was locked. So I waited a sec for someone to unlock the door.

Nuthin.

That's when I kinda knew I was the early bird. But I was already there and I wasn't going home so I trudged back to my car for the house keys and struggled in the unlit carport to unlock the door. When I finally got it open, Sis1 was stumbling across the room, "Oh, you scared me to death. I didn't know who that was!"

Um. Duh!

She'd been asleep on the couch and had heard me struggling with the door and then the lock but was too scared to come open the door for me. Because mass murderers always use a key to get in the door at nearly 6 a.m. on Christmas morning.

*sigh*

So. Needless to say, I got a lot of ribbing this year for waking the whole house up. Well, everyone but BIL and Emmy who slept clear through til 7am.

Anyway, back to the "opened presents with Libs" part of the Christmas morning story.

Yes. I buy, wrap and open presents for my Devil Pup. She loves opening presents and the whole debacle of Christmas morning. She loves getting new toys.

Reaching in for her new toy.

Playing with her new toy.

I know it sounds silly to most folks to do Christmas gifts for a "dog" but I'm one of those people who loves her dog as though she were a child. And I like that quiet alone time with just the two of us before the chaos and crush of Christmas day. She get's a little one on one special time and I get to laugh at her antics as she's unwrapping toys shaped like skunks. haha

Anyway, Christmas Day went by in a wet and muddy blur. Seriously, it started raining at around 7a.m. and did not quit until around 8p.m. Trekking dishes of food back and forth between vehicles and houses while getting pelted with rain was just not fun at all. Wet Christmas is just depressing.

But in all seriousness, I barely remember anything about any of it. I know we ate. and I know we opened some nice gifts and I distinctly remember laughing a lot but the day itself, I hardly recall. Just the rain, mostly.

At least there were no tears. I didn't get depressed and cry and carry on like some lunatic after I got home. I appreciated and enjoyed all the gifts I got. I enjoyed the exclamations of joy over the gifts I GAVE. And we just generally hung out and tried to stay dry.

Then I went home and didn't leave my house until sometime Thursday morning when we decided to go paint pottery and hang out. I am lame so I forgot to carry my camera with me for that but I did steal these phone photos from Mama's facebook to document out foray in frozen yogurt after lunch. ;)

We hadn't really planned on doing the fro-yo thing this year for time purposes. Emmy was determined to go hunting with Bobo that afternoon so fro-yo would put us on a time crunch. But Lyssa, bless her heart, had her mind set on it. She recalled us going their after lunch on pottery day last year and just insisted that we had to go. So of course we did.

They didn't enjoy it at all, as you can tell. haha

We did miraculously make it home in time for Emmy to go hunting and...and...SHE GOT HER FIRST DEER.

Girl was so excited. And annoyed because she doesn't get 3G at the folks'  house so she couldn't post any pictures about it on her facebook page. lol But she got one. It was a four point buck, decent size and it took her two shots to fell it.

I'm not sure what, exactly, re-sparked her interest in hunting this year. She hasn't been or even cared to go since she was around six or seven but suddenly this year she was just all about hunting.

I suspect the biggest reason has to do with boys. haha She has a lot of friends of the male species and they are all up in some hunting so she earned some serious street cred with them by not only going hunting but scoring her first deer.

And Bobo, needless to say, was on cloud 9 about the whole thing. Proud papa-bear, he was. That's one grand-kid he's ushered into the throws of a first kill. Now he's champing at the bit to get Lyssa and Efan out in the woods. I think he's going to be out of luck with the little princess but Efan-man is all up in it. We've just got to let him get a few more years on him. haha

Anyway, the rest of the Christmas break went by fairly quietly. Emmy went home on New Year's Eve, I think. I can't really remember what day she went home. haha Then I spent a quiet and restful few days curled up in my painful little ball  until I came back to work on the 4th.

As for why I haven't yet de-Christmasfied mah house...well, I started coming down with the cold from hell the day I went back to work so I spent that weekend trying to rest and stave it off. Then it hit me with full force and I was still recovering from it this past weekend. And so now, I'm just all, "Who cares? Christmast in July!" haha

And so there you have it. Christmas 2012.

Happy New Year!

xoxo