Christmas has come and gone

...in some respects :) Depending on what gift you give, it may be lingering still as it is in our house! More on that later.



We had a wonderful Christmas w/the children. We started off the morning with breakfast of giant muffins from Sam's (blueberry, banana nut and chocolate chip - yes, that's just like giving them cake, but hey, it was Christmas!). Bacon and eggs were added to the menu for the insulin production challenged to balance things out with a little protein this year (no one else seemed to mind - we really should be raising pigs given the bacon consumption levels in this house!).

After breakfast, we headed into the den for a few quick pictures before getting started with stockings.

(aren't they sweet and patient?)



The children each had fruit, candy and some other goodies in their stockings and after CKB and I watched them dig through theirs, we dug into ours. Fun!

(about to dig in!)


(hmmm, what's in here?)



(Yes, Miss A got her harmonica and I found some plastic (toy, but still sounded pretty good) ones at CVS for Mr. A and a whistle/flute for Mr. E) - here, Miss A and Mr. A are having an impromptu jam session!)

After the novelty of the new things in the stockings wore off a little, we started opening presents. We let Mr. A go first so he wouldn't be trying to open everyone else's presents. He was adorable this year as he opened different presents and exclaimed "Whoa!" or "Yes!!" when he was really excited about something. I could've just sat and watched him all day!



The "big" presents this year were doll houses for the girls, a Nintendo DS and Mario game for Mr. E and a new Buzz Lightyear for Mr. A.




(when he's really intent on something, his little tongue comes out - isn't that the sweetest thing?!)


Now, for the lingering part...these doll houses are not as "simple" as the box leads you to believe! There is a whole bag of shingles for the roofs - not a sheet of shingles, but IN-DI-VID-U-AL little shingles that EACH have to be STAINED, then let dry for a few days according to the directions, then glued on IN-DI-VID-U-AL-LY TIMES 2 DOLLHOUSES - eeeeeeek!

(here's CKB and the girls about to get started...and yes, the window is open behind them - why, you ask...well, let's see, it was over 85 in the house that day and it was STILL that hot when it got dark...why, you ask again? because our property mgr. STILL HASN'T GOTTEN ANYONE OUT HERE TO FIX THE A/C YET.....ack. Sorry. It was a miserable day - so uncomfortable...and in December, no less! But then, this is TX...I digress...back to the dollhouses....)


The directions that came with them started off with "Glue frame together." That was it. No, piece A goes next to piece B, etc. etc. Just "glue frame together" - uh huh - good thing I'm not in charge of construction on these! :) CKB has both dollhouses underway and a good part of the dining room table is taken up with the construction project. I believe the foundation is drying right now and the roof is next to go on. The instructions SHOULD have said "This might take a year to complete, buy THIS Christmas for NEXT Christmas gift giving." Seriously.

While the frame was drying, we went to Hobby Lobby to pick out paint colors for the girls to paint their respective houses, but even though they sell the house kits there, they don't sell the type of paint that is recommended for painting them...go figure...latex....guess where we had to go? Yep, Home Depot (or Lowe's, but we were closer to HD so we went there). The girls each chose 2 colors, a main color and an accent color...quart was the smallest size you could buy...so yes, we brought home 4 quarts of paint for 2 dollhouses - let the insanity continue! The girls each chose their colors and are happy with them in the buckets - let's hope they like them once they put the paint onto the houses!

So...the girls are being patient and the houses are slowly coming together. I'll continue to update the progress until they're complete. (No pressure CKB!) :)

The children all played with their new Christmas gifts most of the day while CKB and I played with the children and did other things that needed taking care of, like cleaning up the aftermath of paper and an insane number of those industrial twistie ties that a lot of toys are anchored into their boxes with. Later in the day we had a very unconventional Christmas dinner of fireplace roasted hot dogs and sweet potato casserole. We followed that up with pumpkin and pecan pies topped with whipped cream. Everyone ate (for the most part - Miss E decided awhile back that she doesn't like hot dogs....argh!!!) and there weren't any leftovers to speak of - I didn't have to spend all day cooking with no one there to eat the "traditional" fare and we were all happy. Yay, for doing whatever you feel like doing and not worrying about the Joneses. Anyway :) Those were some of the BEST hot dogs ever - cooking them over the fire is the BEST, I tell you, the BEST! (Great job, CKB!!!)

Oh yes, and CKB's mysterious ushering me out of the room the other night was so he could gather the children to wrap a present for me (a new bottle of perfume) and some presents from him to me and one from him to the whole family. One of my favorite things is a new phone! Our old one has had the battery replaced and still the charge wasn't lasting for more than about a 5-10 mn. phone call. Even though CKB hardly uses the phone since he's at work all day, he remembered me talking about how frustrating it can be when you're on an important call and the phone would start beeping to tell you the battery was dying...and soon. Yay for the new phone!

And, lest I forget, it was a GAME Christmas for us!
Mr. E got CKB "Connect Four" for them to play together.
CKB got "Trouble" for the whole family.
CKB and I got "Pixar Monopoly" for the children/family.
and
CKB got "Scrabble Upwords" for me (I've been wanting to get this for a LONG time and never could find it in the stores!)



We've tried them all out already and enjoyed them - CKB and Miss E played "Monopoly" while I played "Connect Four" with Mr. E, then Mr. E played it with Miss A and back and forth for awhile. Sadly, the "bubble" on "Trouble" already has a crack...Mr. A was playing...sigh...but it's still functional, just not a game Mr. A can play for awhile :) He was a little too rough on "Connect Four" also...and well, "Monopoly"...we didn't let him near that one! Instead, he got to play with some other things while we played the different games around the table.

All in all, a wonderful Christmas Day at our house....how about yours?