Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. I hope that you and yours had a wonderful day, filled with everything that is truly important. Based on recent world events and a heightened desire to really slow down and focus on our family and the true meaning of Christmas, we had already planned a very low key and non-traditional Christmas day. No formal sit-down with china and silver. Nary a tablecloth in sight. I was planning to make at least one traditional pie, but beyond that it was tamales and whatever else came together as we went along.

Due to an ill-timed line of thunderstorms, we got our family bonding time started a little sooner than we planned today. We went to bed just after midnight-certainly a record for we, the wrapping-procrastinators. Unfortunately, the storms came in with hail, lightning and window-shaking thunder at about 2:00 a.m. With the storm came all three kids. As the storm slowed down, they actually had the chutzpa to ask if they could go check their stockings. At 2:00 a.m.! Good effort.

One kid was sprawled on our bed perpendicular to our feet; one between us, there was a great shuffling of bed/chair/beanbag, etc. between the eldest and the hubby. Storms rolled in in waves until about noon, but we finally relented at 6:13 a.m. to the hourly requests for stocking inspection. We had stockings, Santa, our immediate family gifts, coffee and breakfast all done by 7:30. Wow. New league record!

The girls were all happy. All three. I felt like the mom in that commercial who gives her tween the boots she wanted and banners fall down all over the room proclaiming her the champion mom of all time.

*******Breaking News:

They got the American Girl dolls. Yup-we did it. Glad we did, because they were huge hits. So were the accompanying accouterments like equipment, clothes, beds, etc.

“I got McKENNAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!” Shouted the middle kid.

“Wait, wait! Is this NUMBER 27????? It IS! I got her! She looks just like me!” squealed the youngest.

The eldest got the Madden 13 game she wanted. 

“This is awesome-I knew I would get this!” she said, with a great deal of self-assurance.

The best part of the day, however, was seeing so many family members. All day, people came in and out. It was great to see everyone. When we hurriedly (because some family members had to beat the bad roads and had to leave early) sat down to eat, little voices thanked God for the day, our food, the snow and for sending Baby Jesus. Very special.

As the rain changed to sleet and then snow, the sleds that Santa brought last year, and that had not seen one second of action thus far (other than serving as backrests for the movie last night) finally were brought out to play.

Starting when there was a light dusting on the cars, the middle child had been stalking the front yard.

“Can I sled?”

Not yet.

~~~~five minutes elapse~~~~

“Can I sled?”

Not yet.

~~~~five minutes elapse and her sisters joined in~~~~

“Can we sled?”

Not yet.

This went on for nearly an hour. They finally gave up on sledding and just ran around in it for a while. We tried to tell them that the huge flakes dropping on the lawn needed time to build up, and if they churned all the snow up now, there would be less accumulation. Obviously we were speaking in Charlie Brown adult character language for all they heard.

Finally, the snow was high enough to sled. Down our lawn and our neighbors they went. I was shocked how much better the plastic sleds cruised than the cardboard pizza boxes we used in the past! They actually built up some speed on the slight accumulation and even worked for a little knee boarding and ill-advised snowboard attempts.

The Texas kids on our street got what they had been dreaming of: a White Christmas. They made angels, threw snowball, sledded, ran and romped with the dogs. Exhausted from the minimal sleep, excitement and snow play, all were passed out by 8:15. Successful day. It was wonderful. While it wasn’t as planned, it was as close to perfect as I can wish.

These things I now know:

-Wet-snow snowballs hurt when thrown in your face.

-Shepherd-mix dogs with furry feet love the snow.

-Terrier-mix dogs that look like Muppets do not.

-Dolls can still occupy hours of my kids’ time.

-Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story are still as awesome even after 527,000 viewings.

-Tamales on plastic plates taste as good as ham on china.

-Family is the most important thing.

Blessings to you all, may you have a fabulous rest of 2012 and a wonderful 2013.