Well, the Christmas season came in a flurry...not of snow, of course, as the weather in Texas was warm and blessedly bearable...the kind of weather I'd like to experience year-round. Instead, the whole month of December raced by and is now pretty much a blur to me, because despite my greatest efforts to get everything done early so we could relax and just enjoy the spirit of the season, there were inevitably the things that didn't get done early enough and plenty of last-minute things that I decided to tackle to make it that much more...BUSY!
"Dear Santa, I've been a very good boy this year. Please bring me a...toy." Seriously. Can you please be a little bit more specific? If only everyone were so easy to please...I did accomplish a great deal before Dec. 1. That was a goal I had decided to set sometime back in the summer, as I was already beginning to think about my favorite time of year. I found and bought what I thought would be the "perfect" Santa gift for Zachary back in August (which, by the way, didn't turn out to be so perfect when it didn't work on Christmas morning and had to be exchanged the next day), and I guess that is when it became clear to me that I wanted to knock out my shopping *and* shipping before the real rush would begin sometime in October/November. So, for family and friends whose kids had late-November birthdays, they got their birthday gifts and Christmas gifts at the same time. If there is one thing I have learned I absolutely dread for no apparent reason, it is the post office. I don't know what it is about the post office that causes me to have such a horrible aversion to it, because there really is no reason I should hate it as much as I do. But anyway, I was proud of myself for getting so much of my shipping out of the way before December. So proud of myself that, what little was left, I completely lost all momentum and put it off until I was pushing the Christmas priority mail deadline. That part was awful. But that little side-note was not the entire Christmas season, so while I still recover from all the craziness, I have to say that we did have a nice Christmas.
While Chris was preparing for finals, the kids and I took advantage of many opportunities to look at Christmas lights. Sometime around Dec. 5, the kids and I went with Grandma to see the lights in Spicewood, a neighborhood that always had great Christmas lights when I was growing up. It is always neat to be able to take my kids to see some of the places that I enjoyed visiting when I was younger. We had such a great time. Zachary kept shouting, "I see more Christmas lights! I see more Christmas lights! I CAN'T WAIT!" And I don't even think the ones he'd seen at that point were all that spectacular, but that is what I love about 3 year-olds. They are so full of joy and enthusiasm for the little things in life. Ashley is old enough to enjoy the lights but still too young to really verbalize it, but we could tell she was feeding off of Zachary's excitement. On our way home that night, I managed to get talked into taking a detour just so we could see a few more lights in our own neighborhood. I asked Zachary, "Did you have fun tonight?" to which he replied, "Best Christmas EVER!!!"
Chris' parents came from Nebraska to spend Christmas with us at our house. I was feeling excited because this would be the first time they'd come to our house for Christmas. It was pretty low-key and Chris' mom helped out a lot with cooking. Our Christmas Day food, from the traditional breakfast crepes to the turkey dinner, was all very, very good. I'd wrapped all the gifts early in the month, so all I really had to do on Christmas Eve, after the kids were asleep, was fill the stockings. I always loved the fact that my parents made the stockings a lot of fun to open, so I tried to do the same. It was fun to watch the kids open their presents. Ashley would open one of hers and seemingly decide that one was all she needed to occupy herself for the remainder of the time, but every time Zachary opened another present, she rushed to be by his side, ready to take it from him as though it was all for her. Despite how that sounds, it was all pretty cute. I noticed that Zachary was also pretty delighted by her gifts, so it's all good. We enjoyed getting to spend the holidays at home this year.
Zachary takes a break from the holiday crepe-making festivities to sample the filling.
What a nice big brother! Zachary shares a taste of the goods with his little sister.
My, what big socks you have!
Don't we have the perfect "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree?
Not the first time a fire truck has shown up to our house... 
Santa showed up the day after Christmas to swap out the "perfect" present that wouldn't work with a different one that Zachary liked even better.After Chris' parents left, the day after Christmas, we spent the rest of the week with my family here. All of my brothers were here at one time or another, so we spent a lot of time at my parents' house or going out to eat with them. We celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa at our house also later in the week. My brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, Kathryn, joined us as well. My mom brought with her some pizzas from Double Dave's and we had a very relaxing time of it.
The excitement is building...
My daughter, uh,...Elmo. Oh, wait! My daughter is the one BEHIND Elmo...but in front of Grandma.
My brother, Matt, realizing his dream of playing plastic CDs on an Elmo CD player is finally coming true. New Year's was also very relaxing. I hate to let it pass without any sort of celebration, so I invited my parents over once again and decided to do a lot of cooking. I had a couple new recipes that I wanted to try including a Taco Meatball Ring and these little cheesecake cups that use Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies as the crust with a cherry topping. Mom also brought some homemade macaroni and cheese, and we just had a TON of food. Isn't that, alone, worth celebrating?
So, those were our holidays. Oh yeah, and my grandma came up from Houston and we got to spend some time with her before she and my mom traveled to Boston to visit my sister and cousin. They got back on Thursday and so I took the kids over to my parents' house yesterday to see her once more before she went home today.
It's nice to be settled into the New Year and spending a little more time with Chris before he starts classes again on Monday. Truthfully, I hadn't gotten to spend as much quality time with him as I had hoped to, due to having so much company in town or things that have come up with my church calling, not to mention he received his reading assignments last week and has had to go to work on those during my last week of vacation with him. But we did take the kids out to lunch on Wednesday after Zachary's gymnastics class and then to the Austin Children's Museum, which they seemed to enjoy.
So, another New Year and another new semester come Monday. Time flies when you're having fun!
