We had an enjoyable Christmas this year. To start the day, I put the following sign/list of rules on the living room door :
STOP -- DO NOT ENTER
READ THIS FIRST
1. DO NOT ENTER until EVERYONE is awake and ready to enter.
(Do not wake anyone else up!)
2. Absolutely NO WHINING!
3. Be thankful for what YOU receive and don't worry about what someone else got.
4. Take turns when opening presents.
5. Put wrapping paper in trash bags so presents don't get lost in a mess of paper.
6. DO NOT Fight over presents.
7. REMEMBER WHY WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS - THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST - and LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Merry Christmas!
This sign was actually pretty effective and made for an enjoyable morning. Most of the kids were up before 7 a.m., but they waited pretty patiently for Adalyn to wake up at 8:00. Ryan, on the other hand, was EXHAUSTED, for some reason. (seriously not sure about this one) He was sitting on the couch falling asleep for most of the "show." Oh well, I did get some video and some pictures.
We spent a while cleaning, up after opening presents, in preparation for Ryan's family to come over for Christmas dinner. We managed to get the living room, hall, bathroom, kitchen and family room quite nicely cleaned up, so not too embarrassing. :-) My contributions to our "dinner" were funeral potatoes and jell-o salad. Unfortunately, my jell-o salad wouldn't set up and ended up being raspberry & jell-0 shakes. That actually sounds like a good ice cream . . . . maybe I'll try freezing the rest and see how that goes. At least the funeral potatoes turned out.
I gave myself a nice fleece sweater and a "Wayne's World" DVD for Christmas. I was SO Excited!! Some how I am usually pretty good at knowing what I would like for Christmas. :)
I gave Ryan a 12-pack of Mountain Dew . . . I think he was excited. (He really should have started drinking them right then, as he was having a hard time staying awake.)
The kids got a few different toys, a variety of arts & crafts items and clothes. Andrew got some new sporting goods, a football, basketball and a new baseball glove. He's a lefty and good gloves seem to be harder to find, so he was excited to once again have a glove that fits. The kids also got a karaoke machine. This is quite a hit, especially the "real" microphone it comes with. I'll admit, it's pretty fun to see the words and sing a long. I had several of those "moments" when you realize that you've been singing totally different words to those songs in the past. Fun Stuff!!
Leftover from our stockings, we now have a large bowl of mixed nuts, still in shells. I don't think these will disappear too fast. We also have a smaller bowl of candy. I don't think this will last long. :-)
By late afternoon I was getting a sore throat and chills :-( I was thinking it was strep, but with the ibuprofen and Tylenol on board, I am feeling minimal discomfort. However, in an effort to keep my symptoms to a minimum, and since I am awake anyway, I thought I had better wait until 2 a.m. so I can take a couple more ibuprofen before I get back to bed. I also thought of the possibility of the flu, as my whole body aches, but then I remembered that is probably because I slipped on some ice yesterday and fell on my butt, Hard! So, it's probably more like that "post car accident pain" that you don't feel until the next day?
We finally installed a small heater downstairs this past week. It has done a great job to keep the basement warm. It is a ventless heater that will work even if the power is out, which is one of the reasons we got it. We would be getting pretty darn cold if the power was out for any period of time in this weather! So now, during a power outage, we can all hang out in the basement with candles and our heater. Maybe we should start doing this anyway to save on our electric bill :)
I guess I better get back to bed. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I can get a hold of the camera that was being use to take pictures on Christmas morning. ~~Julie~~
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