Christmas is past and unlike previous years where there has always been a touch of post-Christmas letdown going on, this year I’m just sorta “meh” about it.  But then, “meh” sorta sums up my entire year.  On the whole, I’d say I’m just sorta glad Christmas is over with so we can move on with things.  If I’m disappointed about anything, it’s the notion that we’re that much closer to summer again.  I could go another 9 months without hot weather, thankyouverymuch.

I hope everyone had a dandy Christmas.  I can’t complain too much about ours.  Nothing spectacular, but was peaceful and homey.  We spent Christmas Eve in the usual way.  Kile was home from work and we got the turkey ready (brined, baby!) and that afternoon we went out to eat at PF Changs.  Evie was… special.  It’s getting very hard to eat out with her.  I had to go out with her several times.  But word to the wise: Crispy Honey Shrimp is out of this WORLD.  I want to eat that every day.

Afterward, we went by Walmart.  The intention was to pick up my thyroid med prescription.  Of course, everyone came in and the pharmacy was closed adn I came to the conclusion that if you’re already having a hard time feeling the Christmas Spirit, then going to Walmart is probably the worst thing you could possibly do.  I picked up a last minute gift for Harry (Christmas jammies to open when we got home!) and fled with my sanity barely intact.  UGH.

I had also reserved “District 9″ at the redbox.  The intention was to reserve it at this particular Walmart so I could pick it up while there.  Except, I reserved it for the WRONG WALMART.  I somehow picked the “Northtown” Walmart instead.   Better known as “Getto-Mart”.  We don’t go there.  We just… don’t.  And here it was, Christmas Eve.  And we had to go.  I jumped out of the van and ran inside (it SMELLED in there!) and… no movie.  Just an error message.  GAH.  So we made a call to redbox support and they apologized profusely, refunding us the rental fee and gave us two free rentals to make up for it.  I checked the redbox iPhone app and luckily, “District 9″ was available at a machine on our way home.  So we stopped and picked it up.  We saw “Inglourious Basterds” was also in and picked that up too.  Awesome!

We got home and let the kids open their Christmas jammies, have a little fudge and then it was time for bed.  Yay, Santa’s coming!

Harry helped us fill stockings, eat Santa cookies and put together Liam’s train table before he headed to bed too.  I was impressed that he was so anxious to get to sleep.  He wanted it to be Christmas as bad as the little ones did.   We set up the rest of the gifts, one big Santa gift apiece.

The train table was beyond cool.  Looks like a regular table?  Inside is…

We knew Liam would LOVE it.  And lest you think Evie got left out:

Every Princess needs a castle, yes?  And for Harry:

God help our ears.  We settled in to watch “District 9″ and it was a really, really good movie!  And I found it was PERFECT for Christmas this year.  I needed some violence.  Forgive the small spoiler, but if you need to see multiple people and things blow up like water balloons?  WATCH THIS MOVIE.  It fulfills that quotient quite nicely.

Morning came rather early, as Christmas mornings often do.  I was woken up by the realization that there was one more dog in our bed than is there usually.  I turned over and saw two heads poking in the door, one of them giggling.  The boys were up!  We grabbed Evie out of her crib and headed down to take in the bounty.  As predicted, Liam was floored by his table.  He just stood and stared at it for a few minutes.  Evie took a few minutes to fully wake up.   Christmas can be very overwhelming.

The kids had an obscene amount of gifts to open. Evie had no interest in the actual opening of gifts.  We had to do most of that for her, but she did quite enjoy the end results.   I got some nice gifts, including a watch from Disney World  and some awesome slipper socks.

But by far my coolest gift was a sweatshirt Kile hunted down for me at Disney World.  While we were there, I wanted this sweatshirt SO bad.  But it was rather pricey and I just couldn’t bring myself to spend a majority of my souvenir budget on one thing for myself.  I left it behind but even after got home, I kept thinking about it and wishing I had gotten it.  It was so cool!  I looked online and it was nowhere to be found.  No Disney Store, no eBay, nothing.  Well apparently, Kile found out about this secret “personal shopper” service that Disney provides.  You let them know what thing you’re looking for, what store you had seen it at, and they’ll go find it for you.  So he used that service and hunted down my sweatshirt.  Imagine my surprise when I opened it on Christmas morning!  Very cool!

Of course, now that I look, they have it online.  Still, that doesn’t diminish the heroic efforts Kile went to to track it down.  Awesome.

All in all… a good Christmas.  Kile has this week off so we’re gonna take it easy, recover from the holidays, do some shopping and just enjoy the season.  Sounds good to me, how about you?

So… er…  Hi.

I’m still here, I SWEAR.  But I don’t know if you’ve noticed or anything.  But it’s like CHRISTMAS EVE tomorrow.  And I’m a knitter.  And as such I am burning the midnight oil (literally!) trying to get out a few last presents for the family.  And, sadly, amidst much knitting there isn’t much time for blogging.

Besides, all you would hear me say is, “FLU! ACK!  KNITKNITKNIT!  MY BACK! ACK! KNITKNITKNIT!”  That’s pretty much all that’s happened since I last posted anyhow.

So yeah.  It was the flu.  As evidenced by the crazy ass fever I was sporting (probably WHILE I was writing that last post which does actually explain quite a bit, don’t you think?).  Luckily, I bore the worst of it in the hood here.  Kile and Harry both were sick but neither were in the throes quite as deep as I was.  So… there’s that?  But I totally lost a whole day of knitting and that SUCKED.

KNITKNITKNIT!

And then the whole back thing.  I did something funky to it yesterday, popped something out of alignment behind my right shoulder blade or something.  Hurts like heck.  I had four ibuprofen earlier which sorta helped dull the PAINPAINPAIN, which is improvement because the 4 ibuprofen I took yesterday did nada.  I seriously woke up this morning feeling like one big old muscle cramp.

I can still barely turn my head to the right but whatever.  I don’t need to be able to do that to knit.

KNITKNITKNIT!

Luckily, I’m mostly done with gifts.  I wasn’t able to get everything done that I hoped, but perhaps that will remain as a lesson to me to START EARLIER.  And not to let ones customs list get so out of control next time.  *cough*  I only have left the rest of Evie’s longies (I’m on the second cuff ruffle… woot!) and a hat for Harry.  Oh and a hat for my father in law, but that doesn’t need to be done until like Saturday or thereabouts.  So a bit ol’ WHEW there.  I will finish!  I must!  And no, I don’t get a day off, because soon as I have a chance, I have to get back into customs.

It’s a good thing I like to stay busy with this, huh?

Kile has tomorrow off and doesn’t go back to work until after New Years which is going to be wonderful. I’m looking forward to a few days of family fun and chaos, actually.  I’m not 100% sure what our plans are for tomorrow yet, but I think they might involve eating Chinese food.  Which is fine by me!  And perhaps driving around and looking at Christmas lights.  That’ll be nice.  Oh and brining a turkey.  But that’s more Kile than me.

If I don’t talk to you before the Big Day, I just wanna say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there (there are still some of you left, aren’t there?).  I hope everyone has a great holiday together and that you get everything on your wish lists.

Ho ho ho!

Whew. Christmas is over. Now it is time to begin the business of getting life back to normal. Clear the last of the wrapping and boxes and packages off the floor, start taking down the decorations, move the baby back into her room and crib, get both kids back on their regular nap schedules.

Topping my list of post-holiday to-do is to learn just what to do with the sewing machine Kile gave me. Seriously, the thing sorta intimidates me. But once I get the hang of it, it’s going to be AWESOME.

So how are the rest of you all coping, now that the holidays are past? Do you all need some Advil and a glass of wine as much as I do?

I am EXHAUSTED, ya’ll.  We went to bed after midnight last night, the wind kept me up quite a bit and general Christmas excitement woke me up early.  I figure I maybe got four hours.  AM TIRED.  But things are far too exciting and noisy and confused and chaotic right now to take any sort of a nap.  Plus, Evie is all kinds of needy today.  So as soon as I close my eyes, she’s sure to need me.

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Did you all get what you wanted?  While I knew I wouldn’t be able to get everything on my list, I’m very happy with what I did get.  I got a sewing machine and a bunch of doo-dads and what-nots to go with it.  Everyone here did very well, actually.  Kile is thrilled with the cookware, cutlery and cologne that I got him.  The kids are beyond ecstatic (Harry went apeshit over Rockband, Liam is obsessed with the play kitchen and Evie has a surprising level of fondness for her Cabbage Patch baby doll).  The living room?  Is a nightmare.

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WTF??  The sun is out??  GO AWAY SUN.  You’re not wanted here.  Go on!  Get!

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Have I mentioned I’m sooooo tired.  Because I am.  SOOOOOO tired.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope everyone is having a top-notch holiday.  After having a serious bout of the “bah, humbugs” yesterday, I’ve finally come around to this whole “Christmas thing” and am officially “feeling it”.  For the moment.  I’ll keep you posted.

And so this is Christmas.  It was a rough night, what with The Wind That Wouldn’t Get the Hint and LEAVE TOWN ALREADY.  Plus, you know, good, old-fashioned Christmas anticipation.  Between the two, I got little uninterupted sleep.  And I was up shortly after 5am.  Evie woke up about an hour later.  And a half hour after she woke up, we heard the boys giggling in their room so it was finally Time.  We descended the stairs and the children were greeted with:

Recession?  What recession?

And what about me?  Did I get what I wanted the most for Christmas this year?  Did I get what I had been (not-so) patiently waiting for?  Here is what I saw out the door this morning:

Woo hoo!  SNOW!  About friggin’ time!

I hope you all got what you most wanted this fine, wintery morning.  Merry Christmas to you all, from my house to yours.  As my little gift to you, here are some snaps from the last day or so.  No new camera to take pictures on, but I suppose the other one will do for now.  Besides, I know there’s a MacBook in my future.  (Come on, tax return!!)