There was one odd thing that happened. Maryn looked out the window and suddenly said "What is THAT?!?!"
I got up and looked out and saw THIS standing just outside our building.
I know it was wearing very human tennis shoes, but it was freaky enough that I went and locked our door. My German speaking kids voted that it was someone dressed as a Krampus. I sent a pic of it to Paul and he asked if we could keep it.
The pajama thing worked out well since we got a text from Lisa saying we should wear PJ's to her house that night. We joined Lisa and Steve and their family plus Debbie and Ashante for a wonderful meal of soup Brecken had made. There was also veggies, bread and cheese, and mini hot dogs and sparkling cider. We played a fun mystery game (where you play the parts) in 2 groups and enjoyed Maryn playing cello and Brecken playing guitar.
In the middle of it all, I got a pic from a number I didn't know. It was from the member family in Chico that was enjoying the evening with my son.
We left early to head home and watch the Grinch. Just before we left I had attempted to make a coffee cake for in the morning. I put it in the wrong pan and it spilled all over the bottom of the oven. Since we were just going to be sitting and watching TV, I decided it was the perfect time to run the cleaning cycle and get some of the gunk off so I could bake in the morning.
It only took about 20 minutes for the room to fill with acrid smoke. I had to open to front door and the sliding door and turned on 2 fans and evacuated to Maryn's room. Our eyes were watering and it smelled just awful. I let the fans run and the windows open for almost an hour. But it ended up getting us settled earlier than we had planned.
The two younger kids were settled and the minor crisis averted. Maryn and I started putting out stocking stuff, and she took care of mine.
Ashlyn was having a hard time getting to sleep because it was very, VERY bright outside. Snow had started to fall and the cloud covered sky acted almost like a wrap of all of the light trapped beneath it. It was incredibly bright.
All I could think of was the line from Twas the Night Before Christmas about "the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave the luster of midday to objects below."
I just remember everything being very... soft. The snow was soft. The light was soft. And the combination of those things plus the warm and inviting light emanating from our tree and decorations gave a wonderful sense of peace and joy I wish I could bottle up and glimpse into when things were hard.
Christmas Day was perfectly lazy. We woke up around 7 am and quickly made a new coffee cake (which worked out fine) and bacon, all of which cooked while we opened gifts. Thanks to a bonus and other generous offerings that made me feel extremely blessed, it was a generous year for the kids (although I have really tried to focus less on gifts for gifts sake and more on gifts with necessity, meaning or purpose behind them).
We played around and got things going with their new tech toys and such, and then got ready to talk to Paul at 1 pm out time. We enjoyed our visit with him, and there was a lot of talk about what we needed to do to get ready for him to come home.
After talking to him, we were ready to head to Grandma Downs where we met up with Bryant, Adrienne and Mateo. Grandma made a lovely meal and we brought some games we enjoyed playing together.
What we got this year...
Mom
- Perfume from Maryn (Eau Duelle- from Nordstrom. It was very expensive and I love it! She worked so hard to get it for me)
- T-Fal Pan
- Snuggly sherpa blanket
- Pajamas
- iPhone 6
- Belts
- Backpack
- PS3 controller
- Toss Up Game
- Ukelele (from Conner)
- Ver Wang Princess perfume (from Ashlyn)
- iPhone 6
- PS3 Controller
- MiP robot
- 3 pairs of shoes
- Doodle Dice Game
- iPhone tripod
- Michael Vey book and Minecraft books (from Maryn)
- Diary of a Whimpy Kid book and Rocket Balloons (from Ashlyn)
Ashlyn
- iPhone 6
- PS3 Controller
- Crayola Cling Creator
- Crayola Animator
- 3 pairs of leggings
- 2 dresses
- Pair of shoes
- Lego Trevi Fountain
- Minecraft Blockopedia (from Maryn)
- Nail Art Kit (from Conner)
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