Once again we had an amazing Christmas season. Beginning with my family Christmas on the 16th (so we can all be back in our own homes for Christmas Day), which was a wonderful gathering. The Ohio Kennemers were very much missed. One of the best things is seeing my kids playing with their cousins, who they love.
Christmas Eve was spent over at Jim's parents' house. We are lucky that our family traditions work out nicely without overlap; plus everyone is local so we are never required to travel for the holidays. I had to work early in the day on Christmas Eve (curse of working at a church), but it wasn't bad. I got to go to mass that morning, and got to see all the little kids I love up there. And Jim got to make sure our two were bathed and dressed for the day. Grace and Alex had more cousins that night to play with - nice for us because since the girls are older we really can say "Watch Alex for us" and don't have to be peeking around corners or through windows to make sure he's not destroying everything in sight.
And Christmas Day was exciting. Other than the hitch with the scooter, the kids were overjoyed by the presents (and Grace was very accepting of the "Santa's elf forgot a part" explanation). I get to enjoy myself by cooking the big holiday meal for our family and Mom, Dad and Luella. Beef tenderloin again this year, with mashed potatoes, peas and glazed carrots. Plus I took a stab at making homemade rolls - maybe not beautiful, but they seemed to taste okay. My big accomplishment of the meal was dessert - Irish bread pudding with caramel-whiskey sauce. Yummy!
At the end of the day I just was able to revel in the beauty of the season. Grace declared twice (once at Grandma and Pawpaw's house and once Christmas morning) that "This is the best Christmas I've ever had in my whole life!" I was able to cook a wonderful meal and have other hands cleaning up in the kitchen, which is my most-hated part of it. New toys were strewn all over my house, but we were all still full from the food and wine of Christmas dinner so we didn't care. Just hanging out on the couch that evening as a family, kids crawling all over us, was the best place to be. Alex zonked out on top of me on the couch, and Grace quickly fell asleep after a couple of books.
And in case anyone was wondering, I got up this morning to hit Target at 7am and found a replacement Princess scooter at the second store I went to. Stuck the box under the tree with a big bow on it. Grace discovered it a couple hours later. So she has her scooter only one day late, and now I get to make a trip to Target again to return the first one and get names for writing my complaint letter.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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