Tucking away Christmas memories

So, I told you how our pre-Christmas season went (a trip home to OH). And now a bit about Christmas Day. In spite of how this list may "read", I assure you, we had a LOVELY day.

HIGHLIGHTS:
-Reece ate pirogi and smelts until he got sick. Literally. He barfed in his bed in the middle of the night. Twice. I cleaned him and his bed the first time, then gave him a Children's Tums. Never heard round 2 (he usually cries so we know, which he didn't do.) Found him sleeping in pink Tums puke on Christmas morning. Swell!

-Speaking of pirogi, Carl boiled all 5 pounds of potatoes. Do I need 5 lbs of potatoes to make pirogi for five people? Well, would you eat a whole pound of potatoes yourself? Of course not. But given Reece's barfing episodes, I assume at least he tried. So, what's a woman to do with all those potatoes? Easy. I rolled pirogi as big as your head. LOTS of them. They were Texas pirogi, I tell you. And don't harp on me because I failed to put on an apron first. I'm just glad I got 'em done.


-Brandon came down with explosive diarrhea. We had planned to go to Christmas eve services. However, I'm thinking we would have been asked to leave with Brandon (as the workers muttered, "And never come back") if we had taken him to church. For those who are keeping tally marks, I was now cleaning bodily ick from both ends, two different children, in the same 12 hour period. Did I mention it was Christmas eve? Good thing I didn't have anything better to do (rolls eyes).

-Carl woke up on Christmas Day feeling sick (gosh, can't imagine why) and had to go back to work (great timing for a return from vacation first day back).

-Since we deferred gift opening until Daddy came home at 5:45 pm, I made my kids do school. Yeah, well while you're calling me the meanest homeschool mom ever, just give me the Miss Congeniality banner too. Why? Because I don't give snow days either.

-Olivia screamed with delight as she opened her gifts. I mean, my 8yo literally screamed and spoke in unnaturally high pitches of excitement . Her joy was thoroughly intoxicating, yet bittersweet at the same time. I'm thinking it was the height of childhood Christmases for her. Pass the Kleenex.

-Reece needed a CSI kit (less the asbestos dust) because he totally micro inspected every detail of every box he opened. He doesn't squeal with joy like Olivia. He's contemplative and he'll straight up tell you if he doesn't like something. He mulls things over, as he's doing in this next photo. I had taken the tree down the night before while the kids were sleeping. I came downstairs the next morniing to find Reece looking like Eeyore, sitting in the spot where his tree had been. A quick inquiry revealed that yes, he was feeling sad about his tree being gone.



-Cierah wanted her mug in as many photos as possible. So, as I snapped a sibling I would hear a somewhat sarcastic tone saying, "He-looOO!", in which I would discover staged poses and forced smiles as she awaited the click and flash of my camera.

-Now here's a Christmas Day moment. My neighbor was cuffed and stuffed. Uh huh, on Christmas Day. He moved someone in the day before Christmas eve. It might be the girlfriend who left him last spring, the one who told me he was abusing her, the one whose very wild son damaged several sections of our fence, the one whose children kept poor company and had our nice culdy looking like a street gang headquarters. Anyway, regardless of who it is (they haven't made many public appearances), 2 sheriffs were there on Christmas Day. Oh, and we were already contemplating how to deal with neighbor guy's barking dog (he leaves it out at 5am and it barks ALL DAY until he returns from work.) Well, whoever moved in brought two more dogs. One is definitely half Pit bull (you might think they get a bad rap, but I don't.) Sigh.

-Mormon missionaries came to the door on Christmas eve. I wish we could have invited them in for pirogi and a sharing of our faith as well, but the kids were just too sick.

-Liv gave me a ring. Now this was S-W-E-E-T. After all the gifts had been opened, she passed by and very casually said, "There's something for you on your bed. I think Santa might have left a gift there."
I teased. "Uh uh!"
She continued, "Uh huuuuh. You might want to check it out." A few minutes later, I discovered this on my bed.



And inside, this.


Olivia had taken one of her toy rings and placed it in her most special box; the box her Nana used to present a most special ring to her just a week before. That box had contained a ring that my mom had received as a child from her much older sister, Toni. Toni was 13 years older than my mom and she died a week after giving birth to her first child. Needless to say, the ring Olivia received from my mom is very special and she does seem to understand that. So for her to use that box to give me one of her "treasured" rings told me how truly giving her heart was in that moment. It was a very special gift indeed. She walked in as I was admiring my gift. I began.
"Whoa! You were right. Santa did leave me a gift. Look at it. It's so beautiful. I absolutely love it."
"Uh,..mom??? I hate to tell you this but uh,...Santa didn't leave that. I'm Santa. It's from me." She smiled ear to ear.
(Insert much drama from mom. Gasps. Raised eyebrows. Gaping mouth.)
I then told her how much I loved my gift, slipped it on and showed it off for all to see.

Okay then.
Some good highlights.
Some not so good.
But even in spite of the less than stellar moments, many things were right this Christmas. Our church body brought their gifts to Jesus (singing, musical instruments, etc.), we got to spend part of the season back home in Ohio with family, my immediate family is healthy in spite of the virus that passed through, Carl survived his Christmas season root canal, Carl read the Christmas story to the children from Luke, the kids are at that peak Christmas wonder of childhood, we are now on adoptive status with Brandon, I nearly finished my vacation scrapbook (100+ photos), and as for me and my house, we will (continue to) serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Onward now, 2008!

Toni