Christmas WRAP Up

All I want for Christmas is to put my feet up and relax.  Friday, December 20 came as a welcomed gift. Since I've been working full-time and adjusting to life as a "career" person, time-off become much more special.  Thankfully SKyPAC allows employees quite a bit of time off for the holiday break.  In my previous post, I mentioned being a slacker on my holiday cards.  It seems I also became a slacker in my holiday gift shopping for the kids.  I took care of most of the extended family back around Thanksgiving purchasing gift cards, clothes, etc.  I wanted to do something special for my mom and mother-in-law this year.  I've always loved the house platters that the Paint'n' Place produces.  They are unique.  All the pictures had to be turned in by the second week of November to give the artist time to complete the projects.  I totally forgot to get a picture of Debbie's platter but did take one of Mom's.  LOVE!

My daughter Karson is a published writer.  I ordered a copy of her book and wanted to surprise her with it for Christmas, but she came home with a copy of it from 212 Academy.  I decided to have her autograph it and give it to her great grandparents who were the only ones I could think of who didn't own a copy.  I think everyone in my family and Matt's got a copy =).  I'm thinking with all the sales she's made on Lulu, she should get some royalties of some sort???  I guess we should just be happy she's got her own book online 'for sale'.

 

Matt has been showcasing a potpourri of funny Christmas cards at church.  He's been highlighting one of a guy and his cat.  We decided to do some photo editing and made cat cards of our own. 

One of our Christmas highlights is going to the Hudnall's house for Christmas dinner.  Arlene decorates every square inch of her house.  It's beautiful and reminds me of the Opryland hotel (on a smaller scale).  However, this year we weren't able to make it.  I had to work because we had to reschedule our entire production of A Christmas Story: The Musical due to the weather forecast the weekend of the 5th.  Karson had basketball practice, and it had been a tough week at church, one of our members passed away so Matt had to prepare for a funeral.  We were so sad to miss it but thankful we got to hang out with Phillip (not pictured above) on Monday at Shogun, his favorite place to lunch with Matt.  Matt and Phillip have been buddies for years.  I snapped a picture of Miles's best buddy, Trapper who went with us that day.

Christmas, no surprise, was busy as usual.  We hustle here and bustle there.  It's a whirlwind of crazy which usually ends with cranky kids and parents by the end of the day.  We started out Christmas Eve morning at my parents house.  Our yearly tradition begins with The Twelve Days of Christmas sung by each member of the family and requires a dramatic dance to accompany the day.  The kids get a kick out of it.  Actually, we all get a kick out of it.  My grandparents usually miss their cues or someone bobbles up the words.  It's funny.

Mom took the kids shopping for their gifts which is what my Memaw (her mom) always did with Shannon and I.  The kids enjoy picking out their toys, and quite frankly, I never know what they want.  This year was the year for Pokemon with Miles.  I have ZERO clue about Pokemon and cannot see the joy in collecting trading cards of that nature, but he LOVES them and constantly has a stash in his pocket.  He probably got at least 100 cards this Christmas, probably more.  Mom got him an album with page protectors which is a nice way to store them, but he has so many, the album filled up quickly.

Karson picked out some new dolls called Ever After High which are similar to those creepy Monster High dolls.  She never got into actual baby dolls or American Girl dolls but has always loved the Barbie-type dolls (and Barbie of course).

 Isaac and his passion for Legos never ends.  He wanted Star Wars Legos this year and got a couple of sets from everyone. As you can see from the pictures below, my dining room table is COVERED in Lego Star Wars sets.  I can't tell you how much a loathe Legos, but they are so expensive, it's hard to part ways with them.  There is a portion of my attic that contains the entire Lego City set, the entire Spongebob Lego sets and most of the Ninjago sets.  It looks like we will now have to make a spot for the Star Wars set.  I usually let him enjoy them for a few weeks, and then I have to put them up for my sanity--let's just call it my DARK SIDE for now.  I begged him not to ask for Lego's for his birthday which is right around the corner.  We'll see.  Isaac and Miles share a bedroom, and he is always asking for his own room.  Matt and I joke about getting him a camper and parking it on our backyard and designating it as his room.  At the rate we're going with Legos, we may need to consider that move.

 Isaac spent most of his Christmas assembling Legos and the other part writing sentences--I will be nice to Miles.  The torture of being pestered by an older sibling is horrible, I know from experience =).  Isaac has become a professional in this area.  His mission is to constantly pick, prod, annoy, bother, you name it--TORTURE his younger brother.  To date (since break started), he has written 40 sentences.  He has been threatened numerous times with sentence writing.  I was sitting next to a friend at the movies recently and asking her how her grandchildren were getting along (two boys).  She told me "not well" and proceeded to ask me if I thought it was a certain boy who was the cause.  I told her, "I have NO idea, my boys are constantly at each other's throats. I don't know any different"  Apparently, this is a common thing among siblings although I don't notice it as much with Karson and Isaac as I do with Isaac and Miles.  Sheesh!

Christmas at Meme's House - The Most Wonderful time of Christmas Eve!

After Christmas Eve morning with my side of the family, we headed over to celebrate with the Deaton side of the family.  We usually go to Mamaw's house for Christmas, but they have had a lot going on recently and Matt's aunt Michelle offered to host it at her place of business the Warehouse.  It's a nice place, and we got to visit with Matt's cousins, aunts and uncles.  We didn't stay long because we were all pretty worn out, and the kids were ready to get home and play with their new toys.

Maybe other parents out there can relate to this, maybe not?  Call Matt and I Scrooges if you'd like, but after 11+ years with kids, I find the whole Santa thing exhausting to keep up with, much like the tooth fairy.  I can't think of a time when we've really played Santa up BIG, but we did read The Night Before Christmas, set out reindeer food and cookies for Santa.  This year, we really did poorly.  We did manage to take Miles, our only believer, to see Santa at the mall (that gives us some brownie points).  Our kids have never gotten into the Elf thing, and we've never threatened our kids much with not receiving anything because Santa is watching.  I don't know--something about this year seemed dismal on the Santa front.  I'm happy to have one kid that still believes and two others that still want to believe.  I think for me personally, I never got in the Christmas spirit.  Thanksgiving came late this year and Christmas sprung up quickly.  Hopefully, we'll do better next year for Miles's sake.

I put the kids shopping off til the last minute.  I had purchased them little things here and there but nothing to look like a pile of presents, more stocking stuffer and small things.  Matt and I did some power shopping the weekend before Christmas.  I didn't want to spend much on the kids because they come home with such a haul from both sides of the family.  They don't know how fortunate they are.  Since Santa was bringing Miles a bike, I knew we needed to have "Santa" gifts for the other kids.  Their true Santa gift is the nice, new (expensive) basketball goal Matt installed.  But, we knew that wouldn't work with Santa leaving Miles things.  We managed to find some Santa things for the other two kids that were small and inexpensive.  The ONLY thing Karson asked us for was the Crayola Marker Maker.  It's all she wanted.  We got Isaac a Lego alarm clock and puzzle.

All Miles wanted from Santa was Pokemon cards, but Santa brought him one pack of cards and something that he needed even more, a NEW bike.  He has already put lots of miles on his new ride.

Our kids, like every kid on the planet, are big into the Rainbow looms.  Karson has been making bracelets for months and got a loom for her birthday in October.  Since the hobby is taking over her entire dresser, I decided an organizer was a necessity.  Isaac has been super interested in learning how to make bracelets, but Karson hasn't allowed him to use her loom.  He got his own loom, bands and organizer for Christmas.  We have rubber bands, bracelets and rings everywhere.  Isaac also got some Carl Hiaasen books he'd been wanting.

Isaac woke me up at 4:30 a.m. on Christmas Day.  He whispered, "Mama it's Christmas".  I took one look at the clock and told him it was way to early for me.  He gave it another hour before he came back in and whispered again.  I figured 5:30 was a little more doable than 4:30 and groggily rolled out of bed.  I have no before pictures, just after pictures thanks to Matt.  I've become a slacker with picture taking too.  I'm getting lazier each year with my video-ing and photography.

The kids had all their gifts opened in record time.  Matt decided to go back to bed, but I decided to get some cleaning and organizing done.  Shannon and I had planned to take a quick trip to Destin (Sunday-Tuesday) to look at vacation properties she and Paul are looking to potentially invest in.  I wanted to get my house in order before the trip--which meant packing all the Christmas stuff up.  I managed to get all the Christmas lights down and decorative decor collected and stored.  I did keep the tree up.  I love getting all of my snowmen out of the attic.  I guess snowmen can technically still be considered as Christmas decorations.  I got the house dusted and new decorations everywhere.  The kids were completely unscathed by my running around, cleaning and decorating.  I got everything done by 9:30 a.m. It's amazing how much you can get done when you get up at 5:30.  We headed over to the Deaton's house for Christmas breakfast at 11.  

Nana got Karson this cute monogrammed pullover.  She also got her The Hunger Games book trilogy which was something she was really wanting.  She loves this series and is constantly reading about the characters, drawing them and talking about them.  She's hooked.  I got her the first movie for Christmas.

Here we are on November 22 at Catching Fire - the 10:30 p.m. showing.  I had to slurp on Cherry Coke just to stay awake.  AND, I'm pretty sure I was the oldest person in the theater that night. Katniss may the odds be ever in your favor!!

The boys got lots of fun things like Legos, Spongebob Imaginext Playsets, movies, etc.  After hanging out with Pap and Nana and the uncles, we headed over to Granny and Grandad's to visit with the Bradford side of the family.  I was slowing running of steam since my 4:30 wake-up call.  I did manage to get some video footage at Pap and Nana's house.

Isaac unearthing dinosaur fossils. He's one cute paleontologist.

Post-Christmas, we've seen lots of movies, eaten breakfast at Panera, and Karson has managed to come down with a high fever which will probably require a doctor's visit tomorrow.  Shannon and I decided to cancel our trip to Destin because the primary property they are looking at isn't available to view this week.  I've done some mall walking, hits one after-Chrsitmas sales and made a handful of returns.  AND, I got to blog which is one of the most important things in my world.  I'm hoping to complete my 2012 Deaton Family Year in Review Snapfish book today---keeping my fingers crossed that I'll find the motivation to complete it. Hope everyone had a magical holiday season!  2014 here we come!