It has been so busy around here over the holidays, I haven't had a chance to sit down and write about it. Before I get too overwhelmed by how far behind I'm getting, I will just name a few of our Christmas 2009 highlights:
Jack investigating the presents under the tree once they were set out on Christmas eve, holding up each one with an inquisitive "duh? duh?" as if to ask me if I was aware that there were all these interesting colorful packages that had suddenly entered our living room. I think that was Jack's favorite Christmas moment. We tried to get him excited about ripping open the presents the next morning but he was not interested. Next year, maybe.
Our Christmas pig (chops, not a ham) that Danny had to work so hard to get, persisting through various manifestations of slow foodie incompetence, but we're so glad he did because it was the most delicious porcine product I have ever tasted
Watching Jack turn into a little performer the instant he got the attention of one of his doting grandparents: patty cake, itsy bitsy, SO BIG, little house, ball for baby, rock a baby bye... he has a whole routine worked out now, and turns around periodically to check out how big his audience has gotten
Our sleepover with Tuesday Mom and husband featuring Irish creme and hot buttered rum and an uninterrupted night sleep because the Oregon grandparents gave us the early Christmas present of a night away from being on mommy and daddy duty
A big Christmas eve dinner at Tuesday Mom's house, discovering that I DO like clam chowder (which is convenient because it's Danny's family tradition), and enjoying what a little ham Jack was being for yet another new audience
Playing Christmas carol duets with my mom and grandma while my cousins sang along (covering up our fumbling around for the notes with their melodious voices)... how my piano skills have atrophied and yet still I find it so enjoyable
Finding the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas station on pandora, and playing it 24/7 because you can't have too many Christmas carols
Last minute shopping on Christmas eve, strolling the avenue, which seemed so serene and cheery and the exact antithesis of what I remember of the crowded stressful christmas shopping in malls, which makes me doubly or triply glad we live where we do
Fairy godmother Julia swooping in to visit and helping me brave said crowded stressful mall to take advantage of after-Christmas sales and the gift card my very kind sister got me (not for Christmas, embarrassingly enough, but for my birthday last April!), finding me all kinds of treasures to significantly improve my wardrobe... I know she's technically Jack's fairy godmother but sometimes it feels like she's mine
My Christmas bags! A new family tradition of simple little sacks sown from Christmas-themed fabric so we can eventually phase out wrapping paper... because as my sister has noted, it's not really Christmas without a crafts project
And it's really not really Christmas without family, so we are very grateful to ours for coming out to spend it with us.
2 comments:
Glad you used the gift card. Perhaps I will need to send Julia along with any future gift card purchases?
I would like to see a picture of the gift bags. Maybe you could go into business making them - I think it's a fabulous idea! You would have been shocked to see the enormous bag of wrapping paper we had after unwrapping gifts for 15 people. I will try to recycle it - I hope they take it!
Dan, Becky, and Jack, you provided VERY special gifts of memories for Bill and me this Christmas 2009. Thank you.
Our love, the Oregon grandparents.
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