Christmas 2009 - The Year of the White-Boards

Merry Christmas - belated, everybody!

Some of you spent Christmas with us.  Some of you received text messages or phone calls.  Some of you thought I forgot all about you.  But I didn't.  I promise.

When I was a kid, Christmas was always a very simple event (at least to my recollection):

• Christmas Eve: Open one present, always somehow managed to be pajamas.  Go to bed.
• Christmas Eve: Try to stay awake and listen for Santa Claus
• Christmas Eve: Have parents tell you over and over if you don't stop talking to your brother, you won't fall asleep and Santa won't come
• Christmas Eve: Fall asleep.

• Christmas Morning: Wake up and wonder if Santa had come, yet.
• Christmas Morning: Continue waiting and wondering.
• Christmas Morning: Stop wondering about Santa and start wondering if parents are ever going to wake up.
• Christmas Morning: Start wondering if parents are dead.
• Christmas Morning: Hear sounds of life coming from somewhere in the house, hope it is mom and dad.
• Christmas Morning: It is mom and dad!
• Christmas Morning: Collect stockings.
• Christmas Morning: Open presents (one at a time, each person gets a turn).
• Christmas Morning: Dad cooks breakfast.

• Christmas Day: Play with new toys, read new books, enjoy life.
• Christmas Day: Continue playing, maybe fight with brothers about whose toy belongs to whom.

• Christmas Night: Go to bed and start planning for next Christmas.

You see, when I was a kid, my grandparents all lived out of state. There was no way we were going to be able to make multiple-hour drives in each direction on Christmas, to see them.

As an adult, now, all of my remaining grandparents are still out of state.  Cordelia's grandparents, however, are not.  And Tammy's are here, too.  So Christmas becomes a bit more... shall we say involved?

I found out Christmas Eve that I was going to have to cook a turkey (yay!), and the turkey was still frozen at my mom's place (ugh!).  But it was a Butterball, so I didn't need to worry about having to prep it in order to keep it juicy (yay!).  So I went to my mom's got the turkey, came home, and began the rush-thaw of a 16 lb turkey.

Based on everything I could find on the internet, it was going to take 8 hours to thaw it in cold water.  So I put the bird in my largest picnic cooler, covered it in cold water, and set my alarm for 5:30 (it was about 10:00, so the turkey would be ready to cook by 6).   We didn't need to be to the in-laws until 10, and the gobbler was going to take about 4 hours to cook.  So we'd be a little late for breakfast, but not too much.

Got to bed by 1:00. 5:30 rolled around and my alarm didn't go off.  Fortunately (sort of), I woke up at about 5:50 and checked the time.  Jumped out of bed and finished prepping my bird and dropped him in the oven. Or her.  Thought about going back to bed.  Gave up on that idea. Watched some shows on Hulu.com that  I'd missed.

Eventually, it was time to get up.

Christmas Morning:  Cordelia is greeted by this sight (though less blurry...):

As you can see there are a lot of presents under the tree.  Most of which were actually for parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.  However, I thought it looked better having them all piled up under the tree so we looked like we'd been completely spoiled :)

The trike is Cordelia's, as is the Crayola desk in back.  I haven't taken a great picture of it, just yet, but you'll see it in some of the following pics.  One of her favorite gifts, this year, came from her Uncle Chad (Tammy's brother) and Aunt Patty.  You'll see it in all of the following pictures.

Both the Crayola table, and the magnetic easel have a white-board side, and a chalk-board side.  Cordelia also received 3-4 pre-school books with white-board qualities (ie, you use a dry-erase marker to write on the pages of the book, and can wipe them clean).  She also received a Disney Princesses white-board message board.  Methinks a number of people out there know my little girl pretty well.  She absolutely loves to color and to draw.  Sometimes I think she loves to draw more than color, even.

She does portraits, too, though I haven't caught any on camera yet.  She tends to erase as soon as she finishes.

Anyway, after opening presents at home, we went to my parents-in-law for breakfast (two casseroles: hashbrown and french toast, both very good - especially the hashbrown).  And opened more presents.

Then we came home, and started finishing up the preparations for the afternoon/evening.  The turkey was as close to perfect as I could have hoped, the gravy came along very smoothly, the stuffing was cooking up easily (though I hadn't thought ahead and gotten anything to go with it, so it was mostly just flavored, moist croûtons).  My mom and her new family (my new step-father and two step-sisters) arrived around 3, 3:30, and we played games until my dad arrived.  Then we ate lots of turkey and its table-friends, visited, opened more presents, and all-in-all had a really nice evening. 

Unfortunately, my youngest brother (the only one who lives within a reasonable distance), was unable to bring his kids over.  He ended up with a stomach virus and had to stay home.  He was sick enough his wife had to stay home from work.  So my dad, who rents their basement, took their presents with him, as well as some leftovers.

And that was the Christmas of the White-Boards.  We had a jolly time, and we certainly hope you all did, too!