Christmas Day, 2008

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CHRISTMAS WITH LAINEY-PANEY, HUBBY, AND GAGE 2008
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"Christmas is the time of year
for being with the ones you love.
Sharing so much joy & cheer,
What a wonderful feeling,
Watching the ones you love..."
---Spirit of Christmas by Ray Charles
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So, not EVERYONE we love was with us on Christmas Day, but it was still a wonderful wonderful day. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that this would have been Masyn's first Christmas with us. It just kind of stayed in the back of our minds. It's kind of weird because it kind of seems like so long ago...but then again, Masyn would be turning a year old after the New Year...This was also our first Christmas without Eddie. I secretly (okay...maybe not secretly) kept hoping for a puppy for Christmas. I repeatedly asked Hubby if he got me one. He'd say "no", but I kept hoping that he was just teasing me & keeping it a secret.

My thoughts also went out to others...My friend Hillary. Her husband got orders to go BACK to Iraq 6 days before his military obligations as a Reservist were fulfilled. They are newly married, and had just bought their first house. She would be spending Christmas in their new house by herself. She is a nurse, and actually worked on Christmas, but I know that she was sad & just wished her husband were home...

There's another local boy named Gage who is still fighting Leukemia. He and his family were in my thoughts & prayers as cancer doesn't seem to acknowledge holidays...

Prayers went out to another bloggy friend who was having a very different holiday than she imagined. At a time when she should have been pregnant, and should have been sharing all the joy that pregnancy brings with her family and friends...well, she just wasn't. I'm sure it was weighing on her heart, and my thoughts & prayers just went out to her.

And then of course, I started thinking about all the women out there in that same boat, and I just had to say a little prayer for strength for each of them!

So, my thoughts and prayers went out to others, and yet, I found myself sooooooo busy, that I couldn't even pick up the phone to call anyone or wish them a Merry Christmas! That's what a full house will do to a gal.

And so I shall begin---the Christmas Day festivities...
As I mentioned before, my father-in-law came over early in the morning. He got here before we even woke up. He just sat on the couch sipping coffee until we all woke up.

We were up before 8, and headed down the hallway. Just like last year, Gage made us PROMISE that Santa was NOT still here. Gage is mega-afraid of Santa. When Gage rounded the corner into the living room, I think "GrandDaddy Longhorn" (that's what Gage calls him b/c he is a MAJOR UT fan & always buys Gage Longhorn stuff...) startled him. He didn't know what to think.

He headed into the "Lellow" Room, and that's where his gifts were set up. At first, he wouldn't even go near the stuff. He made me hold him...


He went toward the gifts, and kind of checked them out like a dog sniffing around...after that, it was kind of blah. We had to work really hard to get this kid pumped up about all of his new stuff. I'm starting to think that maybe my kid is just not that into holidays.... hmmmmm.... Best $$ spent on his gifts: a $10 Mack truck (from the movie, "Cars") that I got as a last-minute-deal from Wal-Mart.



The pictures lead you to believe that he was pumped & happy & excited...but I gotta say, it wasn't a big-hurried-full-of-energy-hustle-&-bustle morning like I remember as a kid with paper & bows flying!

So...when he finally checked out the race track, it was fun for a little while...

Yes, it was fun for a while...until the piece of sh*t started smoking & burning up. Stupid frack-slappin' crap almost caught my damn Christmas tree on fire. "Hi, I'd like to return this piece of crap melted ball of plastic. It's supposed to be a race track, but as you can see it didn't work properly." Thank goodness we were all right there when it started to malfunction... goodness!

After THAT fun, we coaxed Gage into checking out his room. We thought SANTA may have left a gift in there...


We were right! Jackpot!!!


As far as opening wrapped gifts...aaaahhh, he wasn't so much into it. He'd unwrap about two inches, and then hand them to either me, Daddy, or GrandDaddy Longhorn to finish unwrapping.
The After-Math:


After that...it was time to get in the kitchen, and start cooking for all those guests that were coming! ...well, you know, after coffee, of course.

So, here I am, in all my Christmas glory, chopping onions with my goggles on.

Poke fun if you must (I'm sure I couldn't resist...), but the goggles keep the onions from bothering my eyes. I just cannot STAND to cut onions!

I was making the dressing, gravy, green bean casserole, and scalloped potatoes for the day. I'd already made cookies & a cherry pie. So, before 9am, I was in the kitchen! And, I must brag to say that my dressing & gravy were awesome. One person asked for the recipes, and I've been officially assigned the task of making dressing & gravy for future family gatherings. All of this---for the gal who doesn't cook!
[what have I done to myself? now they're going to expect great things...crap!]

Gage got a Thomas "shaving kit" with moldable foam soap like shaving cream, and a rubber razor. He ended up taking THREE BATHS on Christmas Day. He had so much fun with that little kit!


And...then after the coffee, I moved onto Mimosas... My holiday "Mistletoe Mimosas"!


We had so much food! Ham, and Turkey, and side dishes comin' out the ying-yang! Desserts...oh the desserts! Chocolate pies, cherry pie, pecan pies, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, cookies, devinity, caramel corn, fudge, red velvet cupcakes, peppermint bark, gingerbread cookies...Oh my, oh my, oh my!


On a more somber note...I must mention our fish.... I had been on Hubby's hiney all week to change the water in the aquarium... I set the water out in the big bucket...let it sit for 24+ hours with it's perfect balance of conditioning drops & powder.... and then, finally----Christmas morning, Hubby obliges me by changing the fish water. And that was the beginning of the end for our whole fish tank. No matter how you slice it or dice it---I blame Hubby. He knows that. He took out too much water. He didn't take the fish out before he drained the majority of their water, and then just DUMPED a whole bucket of the new water on them, although, I am sure he would tell the story differently.... So, when there wasn't enough "fresh" water to fill the aquarium, Hubby filled the bucket with "luke-warm" water and dumped that into the aquarium too. I discovered this after-the-fact, and pointed out that room temperature water is NOT luke-warm to the touch, and I suggested that the water Hubby added was not only too warm, but also too chlorinated. Within an hour, all the fish but one were dead. Gage didn't even notice. We asked GrandDaddy Longhorn to distract Gage so that we could remove the dead fish & save the sole survivor in a fish bowl. The remaining fish was scooped into a regular fish bowl & kept under a watchful eye in the kitchen. He passed away later in the day... So, did the fish get pummeled to death by the weight of the water bashing them against the black pepples at the bottom of their tank? Did they cook in the warm water? Did they die from too much chlorine? We don't know. But like I said---Hubby knows that I blame him. I believe his response was, "well, maybe next time you'll change the water yourself."
When Gage finally noticed the lack of fish in our aquarium, Daddy's on-his-toes response was, "they went on vacation." Lucky me---I get to go find a bug-eyed black goldfish just like his favorite one. I have to match all 5 of them or else he will know! But...I've gone off on a tangent here. 12/25/08: Rest In Peace Little Fishies! Now, back to the story of Christmas Day...

Gage had fun playing with his cousins. Dad & Allen were here too. Allen & Forrest had fun haging out I think....






After that...everyone started heading home around 5pm...
We stood on the porch, and said our Good-byes...


....and we then opened our gifts that my Pop & Gammy (Gage's great-grandparents) sent over.
Oh, look---he wants me to open it FOR him.
Oh, look---what EVERY 3 year old needs---his own candy-dispenser. Um...thanks.




GrandDaddy Longhorn got Gage his first board games. After the crew left, we sat around & played Hi-Ho-Cherry-O & Memory. It probably wasn't the best timing to teach Gage to follow rules of a game after a busy day with no nap...But, we had pretty good luck with Hi-Ho-Cherry-O...


And then...GrandDaddy Longhorn, Aunt Kim, and Forrest came back over later in the evening for some super-fun Uno playing... Gage fell asleep around 7. We thought he was down for the night. Um....not so much. That was just a nap! He was awake again around 9, and ready to play! He had fun watching his Thomas Christmas movie (yes, I have comments about that, but I will post about that another time...), and playing with his train table. When Uno was over (No, I didn't win, but I did rack up 308 or 309 points just by quickly winning one hand!) the family left, and it was just our little family of 3. Gage of course, insisted that he have another bath...He was a little grumpy when bath-time (for the 3rd time that day!) was over...



After that, we crawled up into "Daddy's Bed" for snuggle time & lights out! Before that, it was fun with Mommy's camera & new tripod (thanks to a coworker who told me about a small, portable, and bendy tripod! Love it, and I got it for Christmas from Hubby!)

And so it was... a Merry Christmas to all (except our fish...), and to all, a good night!