Christmas Day

Christmas Day, of course, begins with me staying up nearly 'til dawn, doing Necessary Things like filling those stretched-out stockings and putting four boxes-worth of candy canes on the tree and mopping the floor and decorating cookies and setting the table. And then taking snapshots of it all!


Candy cane covered.  Yes, please.

Every year I fool myself into believing these will not take me all night to frost.  Sucker-punched, again.

Table:


 


Healthy and Nutritious Once-a-Year-Sugar-Cereal-in-a-Tower-for-Breakfast (the eggnog's in the refrigerator):


 


John, my handsome fellow, calmed the rabid children enough so that I could sleep for an hour or two, and then we sat around and opened presents.  Thanks to the dozens (and dozens) that Grandma and Dude put under our tree, that took a good long while.

 Stockings first, though! (My favorite part...)











Wasn't that fun?  Now presents!

The following pictures are mostly for you, Mom O., since they show the children opening your gifts.

Susie (and all the girls) love their slingshots!

All of the girls asked for socks for Christmas because only Millie had some pairs without holes.  This exclaims the jubilation when they opened SOCKS! (I bought them all some, too.  Socks, o socks, o happy day!)

Annika was dying of curiosity here.   

She loves it.  Thank you!  (Piper promptly used it to shoot the noisy Hot Potato Monkey.)

All the girls loved their bonnets, Sarah.  (Zeke loves his Hulk, too, but he still tries to steal the bonnets.  I'm probably to blame.)

Of course, they all loved their seatbelt pillows.

Susie wearing most of her presents...

Zeke walks around the house, his pockets stuffed with new Playmobil figures.

And everyone (even-- especially!-- the eldest) think the train tracks are the coolest.

We hosted Christmas dinner for family who were in town visiting Mom, and when I brought butter out for the rolls, I found one of the Hulks stashed inside.

And here we are, most of us.

A Merry Christmas, now and always.

Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares

On Christmas morning, Baby Jesus appears in the heretofore empty mangers of our nativity sets, and the wise men begin their treacherous journey from the wilds of Upstairs to find the child King.

I love this part of the Twelve Days, even though this year I kept forgetting to move them after the girls were asleep, which made traveling in the heat of the day a necessity for the poor magi.

We have three nativity sets.  The porcelain (breakable!) magi always move to boring (safe!) oases each day.

The Little People set has more fun and can hide behind things like button jars, but they're limited a bit due to their squat bodies.  Plus, their stupid camel always gives them away.





The Playmobil kings are SO much fun to hide, though.
You might think I took this picture to show off the grimy mirror and my chic bathrobe, but you'd be wrong.  Ignore your burning envy of my style and you'll notice camels and kings clinging for dear life.









Usually, the more precarious the pit stop, the better, but I make up for it once they reach the dollhouse.  A warm bath with loofah and frankincense.  Nothing better.

A Star in the East

We cap off the season by celebrating with an Epiphany party on December sixth, at which time I roll out as much of the leftover Christmas goodies as I can fit in the dining room, in hopes that our company will gobble it all up before they leave.


 



I baked all the leftover cookie dough from Christmas (except for the extra gingerbread dough STILL in the freezer-- rats!) to make Three Kings cookies.

After using last year's Epiphany party as an excuse to make my first Buche de Noel, I found myself scrambling around on Epiphany morning making one this year, too.  I think this tradition is here to stay, mostly because the cake is so delicious.  (Buildabelly's still waiting for it, too.)

Not to be overlooked, here is a joyful child finishing a stack of nasty dishes for me right before our friends arrived, 

and here are the baskets of laundry that still remained when they walked in the door.  (Not shown are the two garbage bags of fabric-to-sort that I stuffed into my closet.)

Cassandra Turns Fifteen

We got in on the fun, too!

Becky, Eli, and the family brought the most delicious dessert and ice cream, and we provided a house, a birthday plate, and the party hat.  (Cassie, you foiled my snapshot attempts!)

Between Becky's family and mine, 16 happy cousins filled the room.  (They're all such great children, too!)

What a lucky woman this grandma is, huh?

It Must Be Time for Long Hair Again

I trimmed Lucinda and Piper's bobs super-duper short.

A few days later, Luci came downstairs sporting a whole new attitude.  (Note the chapstick in her breast pocket.  Do.  She would want you to notice.  Pleased with her ingenuity, she pointed it out to me half a dozen times that day.)

After taking the above picture, Ezekiel wanted me to take a picture of him, and he grinned proudly, unaware of the three heads grinning behind his back.

What I See

Piper spies solo.






Annika and Piper spy together.

To Carry Her from Room to Room

December 19th would have been my parent's 44th wedding anniversary.  Sensitive to how hard the day would be, my brother Peter planned a dinner surprise. Mopsy thought she was going out to eat with Deborah, but when she showed up, five more of us were there to greet her. (Andy, sadly, had long returned to Alaska by this point.)

We shared a happy-sad evening together, with good food and better company.  

Just a few pictures, mostly for Andy.

Debbie and Pete on one side (Luke, Joel, Becky, and I on the other) watch Mom open her gifts.

Here's my impressive dessert. Mom and Dad rarely ate out when we were growing up, but they ate here once or twice when we children were quite young, and we have vivid memories of her bringing home most of her GIGANTIC dessert to share with us.  Continuing the tradition, I did the same for my own.

Mom's last gift was a gold locket engraved with a picture of Dad on one side and words of hope on the other.

Pete did the honors.

We love you, Mopsy.

Because Life Looks More Like This

Even if I hate the flash.

I think Piper took these one night.  I don't remember.

Twice as Nice

Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Zeke sometimes still thinks that bottom-thumping is a necessary step toward becoming a virtuoso pianist.  I took a picture and then quickly put a stop to it.

Later, I came in and saw him composing a new symphony.

Once he finally excavated the pencil, that is.

Hot Potato

Here's the explanation for the following pictures, which omit Mildred and I, the two principal figures in the tale.

Scene:  Millie and I are cleaning up the kitchen.

Millie:  "Mama, are your hands cold?"
Me:  "What?! No, I'm fine."
Millie:  "Well, are your EARS cold?"
Me:  "No, not really."
WHOOOMPH!
In one smooth motion, she covered both of my ears with freshly baked potatoes, still warm from the oven.  One thing I never would have known without Mildred.  Warm potatoes on one's ears feel just right.  Let's start a trend!


Next thing I knew, all of us in the room were wearing baked potatoes on our ears.  And it looked so funny, I grabbed my camera.

You are so jealous of my beautiful children.

I include this last snapshot because it looks like Annika's potatoes are simultaneously resting on the shelf and on her head. Let's pretend I planned it.