After all of the excitement of Christmas Day had come and gone, we were so blessed that the other side of our family had offered to come to us this year to save us the run back to Lewistown for a second time. To not have to worry about the kennel for Toby, and all of the packing and unpacking was a real gift. We had planned a lasagna supper (not just any lasagna--- the Pioneer Woman's Supreme Pizza Lasagna...the be all and end all of lasagnas in my humble opinion). So there was limited work that needed to be done to prep for everyone's arrival. We had a few snacks and some other goodies around, but nothing too strenuous. And I appreciated so much that no one was expecting anything too extreme. All we wanted was some time together, and that we certainly delivered on.
As soon as the kids got here, all 5 of them disappeared to play together. I absolutely love seeing them all together, and hearing them as they laugh. There just is nothing like it. Toby behaved himself, for the most part. He only found himself in his crate when we opened presents because his penchant for eating wrapping paper and stealing things away from the kids was getting on our nerves. This was the same issue we had with him on Christmas Day, so he was no stranger to the crate during present opening time. Lucky for us, he doesn't seem to mind his crate, and doesn't make a fuss when he is in there.
I should note that the girls' faces in these pictures appear a bit....stained, shall we say. Santa, in all of his wisdom, fulfilled a request for "real" makeup for Lauren. And my girls had just finished a session of beautification when the troops arrived from Lewistown. We attempted removal, but without makeup remover, that stuff is pretty stubborn, particularly when applied in a three inch thick layer (which appears to be their style at this point). Heaven help me when they're 14 and wanting to wear it in public.
They were a little anxious for presents!
I think Josh might have the best story of the day with his gift. He has been begging Santa for a real guitar and wanting to learn how to play it. Mom and Dad, upon hearing about this, wanted to be the ones to get it for him. And frankly, Dad's knowledge trumps Santa's on this by a long shot. I was hesitant to take it off of Santa's list because I knew that it was his most special request, and I feared he would be heartbroken on Christmas morning to realize it wasn't there. When he came downstairs that morning, the first thing he did was scan the boxes for something that might hold his guitar. And when he didn't find it, he didn't act disappointed, but I knew he was. Having had this game played on me quite a few times where Santa would "deliver" one of my most special requests across the street to my Gram and Pap's house, I knew the angst he would be feeling. But I went along with the plan because I knew it would be something special for Josh and his Pap to share together.
Josh was really struggling because each of the girls opened three presents. And he had one box to open. And it wasn't very big. Add to this that he was starting to not feel well from some death of a cold that has plagued us both ever since this particular day, and I thought we were headed for disaster in the form of a 9 year old meltdown. But he was a great sport and just kept laughing and saying "This doesn't seem very fair, you know!" When he opened his one box, there was a paper inside telling him that we were going to play a game to find his gift. And so a scavenger hunt commenced that had the kids running all around the house, up and down stairs from the bedrooms to the basement and then back upstairs again about 7 times before it led him to the garage where he found his...
...perfect, kid sized, good guitar. He and Pap spent a half hour or so in his room learning the parts of the guitar and a few simple chords that he could work on until the next time they saw each other. Pretty much every day since, he has spent some time in his room trying to get the chords down. He's still working to master the right touch, but he isn't giving up. We're going to work on a lesson for him after the beginning of the new year, and likely after his schedule with the school musical has died down. Until then, he'll have to work on Pap's lessons and keep trying to figure things out on his own. I have half a notion to learn along with him on the guitar that Mom and Dad got for me for my birthday ages ago that I couldn't ever quite seem to get a handle on. Nothing about it came easily to me. So I'm thinking maybe Josh can teach me what he learns and maybe we can practice together.
And so, this ends our Christmas adventures for 2015. It was a great year and a very blessed Christmas season for us. We had very happy kiddos, very happy gift recipients on both sides of our families despite all of my struggles to find the right things for everyone, and somehow everything managed to get done. I finally gave up my fear of the rolling pin and learned how to make cut out sugar cookies (the big soft ones that I've always wanted to learn how to make), although icing them beautifully with royal icing wasn't exactly my gift. I did finally figure out a trick to flood them with one color icing and then hit them with festive sprinkles before it hardened as a special treat for this party. And that is how I believe I will be doing them from now on. They certainly weren't the prettiest cookies you've ever seen, but they did disappear from the cookie tray before any of the others. We cooked lots of yummy food and some new things that will absolutely make our Christmas rotation from now on--- especially the smoked salmon that we made for Christmas Day. Wow. Jason outdid himself on that.
To end the holiday, Josh and I both ended up sick, and spent nearly the entirety of the 27th on the couches. I am pretty sure it was Lauren's virus that got us both, but my defenses were definitely down from a lack of sleep and too much stress and just being overloaded. So it was no surprise. Dad always said, "If you don't slow down, God's going to slow you down." And He sure did. I accomplished absolutely nothing on Sunday-- dinner was leftovers, no laundry done, no cleaning up done. We just rested and napped and snuggled under the blankets. And that was just fine with me. I woke on Monday feeling much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment