Christmas Festivities

On Christmas Eve we had Rob's grandmother Johanna over. We had his traditional New Mexican stacked enchiladas (minus the fried egg on top) which Rob made himself. There was the reading of Luke II with attendant acting out (Will was the surprise favorite as baby Jesus). We sang lots of carols in the original version and the kids' irreverent revisions (even in German which had Oma hooting). And Opa and Betsy were on hand with nearly an entire bookshelf full of books chosen especially for these three. Our new Christmas rave comes from Betsy: _How Murray Saved Christmas_ by one of the writers for The Simpsons.
And they got their pajamas. I was relieved that they fit since I probably bought them in July and had to guess on the sizes. Sebastian was the one who asked "shouldn't we open the presents now?" all night long.

Oma needed to be driven back to her house until her live-in helpers got back from their parties, so Rob took her. I was terribly worried that I wouldn't get everything done before I turned into a pumpkin since my bedtime is usually 8:00 (Rob took me off of homework duty since Will complained that I was falling asleep in the middle of reading time). It's a critical year for the kids since Sebastian actually gets what is going on and Madeline has been asking technical questions. The latest was "why do stores sell 'stocking stuffers'?" so I knew there couldn't be any slip-ups and I couldn't fall asleep and forget about it like I always do when someone has lost a tooth. I am so bad that we actually had to tell the kids that the Tooth Fairy is a single mother, and sometimes she just doesn't make it when one of her kids is sick (I know . . . I feel just terrible). I figured this wasn't going to work with Santa.

So I shouldn't have spent any energy on the house, but I couldn't help it. Some parts of Christmas are for me and Rob. The table looked better than an afternoon nap!
And somehow everything got finished and cleaned and Santa came to boot. We had put the kids to sleep downstairs with the strict injunction that they couldn't come up until we came and got them (after waking up at 4:30am this Halloween we weren't going by their schedule). They were great and we got them at 7:00.

Madeline got a purple light saber to defend herself against her brothers. She also got a curling iron and I spent the next two days in ringlets. I was relieved when some other little girls came over and were her new hair models. She loved this game, but you're still more likely to find her nose in a book.

Will got four different Lego Star Wars sets and worked on them diligently and alone and had finished all four within 24 hours. He had a lot more attention to detail and patience than we knew! He also loved two new 'graphic novels' with Tin Tin.

And Sebastian got fun toys like GeoTrax and Cars the Movie stuff, but by late afternoon all of the excitement and sugar had him comatose on the floor. He was so into opening the presents this year and would jump up and say "Oh thanks! It's just what I wanted! I love it!" each time he got one.

It was a beautiful day. It was still dark when we got up and felt very cosy. And it had snowed quite a bit the day before, so all day Rob and I sat on the couch and watched the little birds pick our birdseed pinecones clean.

I made baked french toast and a potato/rosemary/fontina strata for breakfast, and they were beautiful! I should have taken a picture. They also tasted great, but I should have made a third of each recipe. Nobody could eat all that and the stocking candy too!

Overall I was just grateful to have made it to that point: to have sent out the cards, given gifts to the teachers and neighbors, bought everything, wrapped everything, baked everything, made the gingerbread house, assembled, remembered, cleaned, bought batteries, and I couldn't believe we managed to feed the birds as well. It was an extra treat.