We survived yet another Christmas as parents (Whew!), and I'm finally past my mental constipation. The outcome? Blogging diarrhea! Sorry for the crudeness, but that's just about how I feel right now. So, forgive the epically long post, but for the first time in weeks I finally feel like sharing.
This year we decided that we were going to do the Holiday Tour as follows: Christmas Eve - presents at home in the morning, followed by Christmas in White Deer. Christmas Day - Leave at the buttcrack of dawn and do Christmas in Gruver. December 26th - Burn the house down and start all over, because it was such a tornado-scene the thought of ever cleaning again caused me to hyperventilate.
Phase One - Christmas at Home
I had it all planned out, we were going to let the kids wake up on their own, and then walk into the surprise of presents under the tree. Mind you, we have had gifts stashed since Thanksgiving. But, since Taylor now knows that presents are for opening, we decided to keep them hidden until the big day. Then comes the monkey-wrench. Jody can never remember the plans I lay out, even though I remind him frequently. I know, I need to get him some Ginkoba for his birthday. So, he schedules an appointment at 8:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve to get new tires. So, like any good mother, I adapt. We drag our asses out of bed at 7:00, and proceed to the living room. Taylor was not happy about being up and functional at such an early hour. So, it took some mega coaxing on our part, but we were finally able to lure her into the living room. And again, it took more coaxing to get her to open her presents (She kept tearfully saying, "Breffus!" for about 3-4 minutes before we could get her to even give half a rat's ass about the presents.). Then she finally realized the big Mahomba-Jamba. Her very own (to share with Ava of course) little princess table!
Still a little drowsy, but finally getting the fact that something big is going on.
It's highly likely that someone in this picture is exhausted and mildly hung-over. I keep telling Ava to go easy on the sauce.....
After the realization that Santa brings fun and awesomeness, Taylor finally started to rip at the wrapping paper. Her first gift?
Wait for it........
A BARBIE DOLL!!!!! About 2 seconds after this picture, we learned that Taylor has absolutely no interest in Barbies whatsoever. So much for me reliving my childhood through her.
Ava really got into the whole thing too. After studying Taylor's every move she was making spastic efforts to unwrap and eat every one of her presents :)
What? I totally wasn't eating this paper. Look the other way.......
Taylor and Daddy enjoying a nice picnic in the living room. She was very disappointed that he wouldn't sit in the tiny pink chair like her.
Phase Two - Christmas in White Deer
Early that afternoon, we loaded up and headed to my dad's for our annual "no way in hell am I eating turkey or ham again" dinner. In case that last sentence piqued your curiosity, we had ribs. And they were amazing. The evening went off without a hitch (as long as you don't count the raging bonfire in the living room that caused some major sweating from everyone). The kids all had a blast, and Dad and Taylor had entirely too much fun with her new Pingu doll.
As usual, Taylor finally crashes out just before we hit the WD city limits. For a kid with no nap, she fared rather well.
Uncle Jered was the life of the party. The girls all had a blast being "dropped" from mid-air. Ava was looking on eagerly, you could tell she can't wait to join in on that party.
"Uncle Jewed! Sit down! Taylor's turn!"
Two seconds prior to this, they were both sitting contentedly in the chair, a total Kodak moment. Good job getting the iron-grip, Kadey, otherwise T would have gotten away.
Gigi did a fantastic job wrapping the kids' presents. So fantastic in fact, that most of them required a knife-weilding adult to open.
God bless Aunt Lisa for keeping my Lil' Bit occupied as I made sure Taylor didn't go leaping straight toward the fireplace.
Anyhoo, WD Christmas went off smoothly. Until we got home, that is. My plan was to leave around 7:00ish so that the girls could get a decent night's sleep in their own beds before embarking on what I knew would be another napless day in Gruver. We left on time, and everything was status-quo until we pulled into our driveway. That's when I couldn't find our house keys. "Jody, where did you hide the keys?" He's a notorious ferrett, and usually hides things in goofy places, but it never takes more than a couple of minutes to find them. Well, usually. After much searching, we finally realized that he had accidentally left our house keys inside the house when he made a last minute trip back in the house for his sunglasses. Thankfully, our property management's on-call dude actually returned our call and met us with a spare key (Unfortunately though, this happened after Jody destroyed drivers' licenses from both of us trying to jimmy his way into our house. At least we now know its kinda hard to break in if you're an amateur like us.).
Phase Three - On to Gruver!
The next morning's plan was to leave at the butt-crack of dawn, spend all day in Gruver, and hit the road around the girls' bed time. We left on time, but had to visit three different gas stations on our way out before we could find one that was turned on and working properly. It was a great, albeit short, visit. What cut it short was the late-breaking information that Amarillo got doused in snow during our absence, and the storm was moving toward us in Gruver. And guess who didn't pack enough stuff for overnight? This is where I have to concede, Jody did try and coax me into packing overnight stuff, just in case. But I was so hellbent on leaving out on time that he lost the battle. Yeah, there are times when we should listen to our spouses......
Taylor giving Collins a hug after cracking him in the head with a ball. In hers and my defense, I didn't realize there was a hard plastic part on it until it thwonked him on the head.
Ava borrowing a Santa hat from the bigger kids. Grammy got her a super cute "My First Christmas" hat, but due to the ginormous noggins my kids have inherited from me, it didn't fit :(
Taylor getting her Santa on, while Mary Jo was pretty much "Pshaw-ing" the rest of us off.
Taylor and her tractor that her departed Great-grandpa John got for her. She was so excited about it, we had to really convince her to open the rest of her presents.
Sweetie.....
The annual picture session on Mary Jo's couch. Something about the lighting in this room gives the kids uncorrectable red-eye.
Taylor not only crashed the picture, but decided that Aunt Peggy was in need of a candy cane at the last minute. Well done, Taylor.
So that's it. I'm done with my blogging overload session, and now that I'm past the hump, I promise to get back to regular, short, posts. Merry Crimmas everyone, and thank God its over!
