Christmastime

We celebrated our little family Christmas early this past weekend. A big shout out to Santa Claus for agreeing to make a special trip to our house more than a week before his usual big night.

Friday evening Allan was working nights. So, the kids and I prepared for Santa as best we could without him. At the grocery store, I saw these cool Christmas-shaped sugar cookies (that you bake yourself), and thought it would be a grand idea to leave them out that night for Santa to eat. But when I got home, I realized a person needs cookie cutters shaped like Christmas-ey things in order for the cookies to be Christmas-shaped. Looking adversity dead in the eye, I got out the paring knife and took requests. The trees and snowmen were a bit lop-sided, but we made do.

Hannah decorating:


Sevin peeled off his shirt fairly early in the evening because of my insistence that "it's (fake) Christmas Eve, and by God, we're having a fire in our new little stove whether it's 60 degrees outside or not."


The cream of the crop:


At 8:00 pm, the kids were begging to go to bed. In their heads, going to bed early = Santa arriving early. They were mad that I made them stay awake & watch Fat Albert for the zillionth time.



Letters of gratefulness.




Finally, at 10:30, I agreed to allow them to go to bed after one last picture.


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Fast forward a mere five hours. Time check: 3:30 am. In my sleepy-sleepy-stayed-up-til-post-midnight ear, I hear an excited whisper. "Jennifer! Jennifer! Come look what Santa Claus brought!" I panicked because Allan would not be home until 6:30. Their excitement visible, the kids agreed that they would try to go back to sleep in Heather's room until dad got home. I didn't have to try. I fell back to sleep hard. At about 5:45, I woke up and peeked in on them hoping they had gone back to sleep. Too much to ask. They were bright-eyed and beyond anxious for their dad to get home.

He finally walked through the door. Here's a small glimpse of what happened after that.















Santa surprised the kids with a note saying they would find an extra large present in our room covered up by a blanket. This would be a gift too large for, let's say, step-mamma to carry into the living room by herself. ahem.

(It's a TV in case that's not obvious.)

It was a really fun day, and I think the kids loved their gifts. But I must tell you about my step-son, Internet. The kid had a plethora of brand new, exciting toys lying around him that (fake) Christmas morning. But what did he play with for at least 45 minutes immediately after opening all the presents? Do you know?... It was the little gold wrapper from the package of Rolo's he received in his stocking.

Hannah's new Bratz laptop. If you're hoping to buy one of these for your kid (or have Santa bring one), good effing luck. Ebay. If you're lucky. But the deadline's passed for Christmas, my friend.


The new TV was a hit.


Sevin and some Power Ranger Zords. I'm sure the gold Rolo wrapper is just out of camera shot.


The next day we went to my Aunt Shelly's house for more Christmas fun.

The kids were allegedly mimicking "reindeer" here, but I have my doubts.


Peyton & Sevin both got these spy gear sets from my parents. This is an ideal present. Later they were playing, and hesitantly revealed their spy names to be Shringé (Peyton) and Shark Boy (Sevin).


My older brother Stevie & his kiddies Sydney, Peyton (listed in the Interpol database as Shringé)and Luke:


My big bro & me. (we are squinting mightily here, but i don't even remember it being sunny that afternoon. ?)


We have another Christmas get-together with my in-laws on New Year's weekend. So, the festivities are far from over.

Merry Holidays to you, Internet. Mine have been very merry indeed.