Breathe....

Ahhhhh....taking a deep breath now that the hustle and bustle is just about over! We are still planning to travel this coming weekend to celebrate with my family but at least the busy work of the holidays is mostly behind us. We had a really nice Christmas Eve dinner at Rick's parents house on Sunday night after the 5pm service at church.

Christmas morning I woke up at 5:30 to get the turkey in the oven (and deal with E who had lost her paci). The turkey was still rather icy and stiff when I pulled it from the fridge. I soaked it in cold water for 30 minutes and had to cut the skin that was holding the leg bones together in order to pry the still solidly frozen giblet bag from inside. I was worried that it would not be done in time and wondered whether I should stuff it or not. Since it was barely 6am I decided to chance it and figured if worse came to worse we'd eat at 1pm instead of noon. I stuffed it good and threw it in the preheated oven. Amazingly enough, the darn bird was done a bit on the early side - well, it was done on time but I thought it was going to need extra time and it didn't! I turned the oven off and let the turkey hang out in there while I finished the side dishes and it all worked out beautifully (and tasty, too!).

The turkey went into the oven at about 6:15a and then I sat and quietly enjoyed a cup of coffee while I waited (yes, waited!) for the girls to wake up. Lately, we've been in a bit of a 'sweet spot' when it comes to the girls' morning wake-up time. They've been getting up somewhere between 6:45a and 7:15a most mornings which is a far cry better than the 5:30a-6:00a wake-up we had been subjected to for far too long! Still, I was shocked when R woke up at 7:15, followed by A about 10 minutes later and we didn't hear a peep from E until close to 8:00a. I really thought that the excitement of Santa's arrival would have made for a pre-dawn wake-up call from the older girls. It was the best gift I could've gotten from them - drinking a full (hot!) cup of coffee in the quiet of a Christmas morning with the lights twinkling on the tree and the presents still piled high in their festive wrapping. After those precious moments it was so easy to enjoy the chaos that followed.

The girls were thrilled with their presents - well, R and A were thrilled with the presents and E seemed to be just as thrilled with all the wrapping paper, bows and boxes! E eventually became interested in playing with the toys she had opened - but only after the wrapping paper was all cleaned up! And she still enjoys climbing in and out of the various boxes that are hanging around. The biggest hits for R this year were all the craft-related items: learn to knit kit, weaving loom, and pottery wheel (thanks to Uncle Will who just took a pottery class we were given some great instructions on using the darn wheel - until he came over to help we were having huge issues and thought it was a piece of junk with a weak motor!). R got started right away on her loom but I think in all the excitement she got frustrated easily (plus, I could not sit and help her for too long because the big meal needed to be prepared). Hopefully, I can find some quiet time to sit with her and we can work on a weaving project together. As for A, she has most enjoyed her HUGE pegasus from Santa (that matches the one R got from him last year except in color), her new barbie doll (a character from Fairytopia that can be a mermaid or a fairy), and a game that grandma bought for her (Pretty, Pretty Princess). The girls also got tea sets and have already had one big tea party at the kitchen table (side note for those who recalled my earlier tea set dilemma: they decided of their own accord to SHARE one tea set when they first started playing! Santa probably could've brought one tea set and stuck both names on it and they would've been just as happy....I think! Oh well, at least we have spare parts in case anything gets broken! LOL). E's favorite toy (as far as she can have a favorite at this age) seems to be the talking Care Bear. It has six different buttons you can press and pre-recorded phrases and it came with a doctor's kit so you can take care of him. She likes to press the heart on his chest to hear some of the phrases and she also seems fascinated with using the stethoscope to gag herself (lovely.) so I've had to take it away more than a few times.

The biggest hit all around (adults included) were the cheap-o styrofoam air rockets that we got from American Science & Surplus (which - out of earshot of the girls - Rick and I refer to it as the ASS Catalog when it comes in the mail: "Hey, is that the ASS Catalog?" or "Oh! Can I look at the ASS Catalog with you?"). Here is a link to the actual rockets we bought. Everyone was shooting them off across the room and the kids were chasing after them. Every time one went off E shrieked happily and chased after it. She liked chewing on them a bit too much so we had to race her to get them first and she seemed to like the game of "who will get to the rocket first!" In the last few days she has gone from a walker to a runner so it was at times hard to beat her at that game!

All in all, Christmas was wonderful. I am left with a warm, fuzzy feeling when I think back on our Christmas celebration...but all the same I'm really quite happy that the celebrating is over and we can get back to a more normal pace of life.

Relax...breathe...