Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Wow! Christmas has come and gone for another year. Just the other day it seemed like it would take forever for Christmas to come, and now, POOF! It's over. I'm so very tired now, though. It takes a lot of work to 'do' Christmas right...especially when you have kids. I really didn't do as much as I wanted to, but with working full time, it's hard to fit everything in that you want to do.

Christmas Eve we typically spend at my mother-in-law's house. It's great fun to see everyone! Everyone is there. Kids, grandkids, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandparents. You name it, they're probably there! My mother-in-law does a buffet dinner to which I contribute the annual offering of pierogis. Mine are DELISH! I actually have an old Ukranian recipe that a friend of mine shared with me about eight years ago. I always make the same and they dissappear before the end of the night!

My mother-in-law also does Santa and presents during her celebration. Usually Jeff or Robin will dress up and hand out the gifts. It's great fun watching everyone tear into their gifts! It starts off fairly well and then dissolves into controlled chaos by the end.

We have Christmas Day at our house. Usually we invite my mother-in-law for dinner as everyone else has their inlaws over that day. My family's in Canada, so we have no one really over, so we invite her. Some years she comes, other years she doesn't. She decided to come this year and we were thankful! We also had all of Robin's kids and their kids over for dinner. I think all told we had about 14 people over for dinner!

Dinner this year was prime rib. Robin cooked that while I made all the sides. To round out the menu we also had glazed carrots (I need a better recipe. This one had too much garlic powder and just wasn't as great as I thought it might be), green beans with caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar, roasted red and white baby potatoes, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I was too overwhelmed with other Christmas stuff that I never did make a dessert, so I cheated. We had pannettone with coffee. It was actually the best idea. It was really light and dinner was relatively heavy, so it was a good idea overall.

The kids had a blast on Christmas morning tearing through their gifts. We tried to control the possible chaos and had only one child opening their gift at a time. When they had unwrapped it, they then put their paper in the black trash bag and took the item down to their room before we continued. Not only did this extend our gift opening, but we were able to enjoy their reactions to their gifts. Also, it meant I didn't have the big job of picking up all the last bits of wrapping paper while everyone else was enjoying themselves with their new gifts!

Maddy was ecstastic with her doll house from Santa! I'm so relieved! I was worried she wouldn't like it as all she had talked about for weeks was getting a purple fairy. Where she got this notion of a purple fairy is beyond me. Thankfully, no mention of the fairy doll since Christmas! She and the boys had a blast playing with her doll house! The boys loved their tools and medical kit! It has been too cute having them listen to my heart with their pretend stethoscope or take my temperature with their pretend thermometer! The funniest is when William gives me a shot with the needle! He keeps looking at my face to see if I'll start to cry when he gives me a shot! LOL.

I was truly blessed this Christmas. Not only did I get to watch my three, beautiful, healthy children open up their gifts, I also have a wonderful husband who spoiled me. I got my Kitchen Aid crockpot I've been eyeing for months. I also got a great coffee maker and a new toaster that has a retro look to it! Love them! I know it doesn't sound like what a woman would like for Christmas, but I'm too practicle to ask for other stuff when I needed to replace my small appliances in my kitchen. I love them all, so I'm really happy! Robin also got me a memory stick for my computer. This will come in handy if I ever get the hang of digital scrapbooking! I'm going to try and carve out some time for that this afternoon! I also got some nice perfume! Yay! My good stuff is almost gone, so he got me some that Maddy then gave to me.

My Christmas, while exhausting (I spent most of yesterday in a half daze! The kids were up way earlier than I was ready for!), was joyous. I got to spend time with family, no one was sad and I have my family. I'm looking forward to all that 2007 holds for us. May 2007 be a blessed year for everyone!

I've been trying to upload pictures for this post for two days now. Everytime I do, my windows shut right down and nothing is loaded in. So, for now, it's a post sans pics. As soon as it will cooperate, I will share some pics. Stupid blogger! GRRRR!