Well, when a day starts at 5:15 AM, there's no way of knowing what is down the road the rest of that day. BUT, when that day is Christmas, it's a different story! Jake sprung into the room just after 5 and wanted to open everything. It seemed so early! We stumbled out and the present opening began. Santa brought both boys, mommy, and Aunt Tara a Nintendo DS. What electronic fun! Corinna loved her very first christmas. She tried to eat as much wrapping paper as possible. Santa brought her a Rose Petal Cottage playhouse which is huge. Santa aught to consider where parents will place such things before bringing them!
Constant flashbacks to a very uncomfortable last christmas made me even more thankful as I watched Corinna walk effortlessly across the present-strewn living room as opposed to kick my belly from the inside! I will admit that this christmas was as much for me as for Corinna. The Rose Petal Cottage certainly out-aged her by like 4 years, but i didn't care. I wanted pink. I wanted tea party. I wanted a boy-free playhouse!! She loves it, and I'm ever the happier.
We knew the boys would LOVE the DS and not do much else for the rest of the day. We were right. We let them play until their hearts content. Which for Jake amounted to several uninterrupted hours of game-play!
Christmas Eve was pretty great, Aunt Lainie had the idea to have make-your-own pizzas for dinner and it was a hit! Aunt Tara made yummy shrimp also. The boys ate in the living room and the grown ups (grandpa, Aunt Tara, Aunt Lainie, Bavan, mom and dad) ate quietly in the dining room. NOW I understand why the kids' table is usually in the other room! We lit a very pretty taper candle (sorry, not Party Lite Kim) in the middle of a pine wreath in memory of the kids' grandmother. She was totally there in spirit.
As is long tradition in the Gartner house, we sat down and read "T'Was The Night Before Christmas." Only this year, no one listened! There was effort made, but the boys were shaking in their boots with excitement, Corinna was squirmy and tired, and it just went humorously downhill from there. We tried, but no amount of "shhh"ing would cut it!
The weekend before Christmas we were in Syracuse with the Baca family. It was great to see so much of the family and enjoy a wonderful time with cousins and grandparents. And the boys went with their cousins and Aunt Kim to see Lights on the Lake, a long-standing Syracuse tradition. Meeting a LONG line had no impact and they had a great time. I've been trying to go for the better part of a decade...I saw 2010 is my year!
