it was a merry christmas

wednesday the kids and i and my nephew went to my mom's house to bake cookies w/ her and my sister and her kids. for the most part it went fine. i had to shake my head (mentally) when we walked in because, although she's the one who offered to host this baking event, my mom's kitchen/dining room was a wreck. not only was it unorganized in that we had to dig through drawers for measuring spoons, cups and bowls to mix stuff in but the dining room table was piled w/ crap and the floor had obviously not been swept or mopped for awhile. really??? there are two adults living there, why the mess? and in the den? coffee cups, full ashtrays and a bowl of at least two-day old half-eaten salsa. (this was all still in place when we went back on christmas day).

my sister did little baking, complaining her back hurt. the kids decorated some cookies and then, aside from the girl, they were off playing in their own world. one of them locked the door to the garage (it's not been a garage since my parents bought the house 18 yrs ago, it's a finished room that now holds their junk overflow. the kids use it as a club house). so the door is locked and of course my mom has no idea where the key is. the girl came to the rescue by removing the hinges and we took the door off the frame. i think she might have the skills needed to be a cat burglar : )

for the most part there was no tension. no mention of any family strife. my dad did piss me off once. he came home from work around the time we were starting to wind down. i was dipping cake balls at the time. in his typical negative fashion he had to comment. something about how bad for you those were (this from a man who's belly rivals santa's) and how i could take them to a nursing home and kill all the residents. he said this as he's making his second or third drink. i turned to him and said, well, they aren't any worse for you than what you've got in that glass. (i might have mumbled asshole in my brain.)

moving on.

christmas eve was wonderful. everyone always comes to our house christmas eve to open gifts from the families. the hubs had cooked a yummy pork roast, i made the sides. once everyone got in and situated the hubs and i went to our room to get our gifts and he changed into his santa suit : ) he let all of the kids sit on his lap, except puddin' who really is not into people dressed up as anything. he was so sweet. no one could ever know how much that meant to me. i know he wasn't thrilled to have the family here given the recent drama. but he was gracious and played santa and all was well.

after everyone left we all opened christmas pajamas, relaxed for a little bit and then the kids went to bed. now "santa" could begin wrapping their gifts. even though neither of my kids believe in santa any more, we still pretend.

christmas morning they woke us up at FOUR A.M.!!!!! 4am!!! wow. i hope they grow out of that soon. everyone got a lot of great, great presents but the best gift i got was something the hubs had fretted over for weeks, worried that it wouldn't arrive in time. it came christmas eve.

you know how i've been on a coloring book quest? well, he'd searched high and low for coloring books (because i got a huge new box of crayons too!) and couldn't find any. he got on ebay and not only found me a christmas coloring book (no activities in it thank you) but? the coolest thing? it is from 1968, the year i was born. how fucking awesome is that???? i cried. that's probably one of the sweetest gifts i've ever gotten. and in 1968 it cost 10 cents. lol. i debated about whether to actually color in it...but that didn't last long. i've colored three pages already.

it really was a merry christmas.