Obligatory Christmas post

We had a nice Christmas, despite Bobby and I beginning the week in a serious Christmas spirit deficit. Between Maggie and me, we'd had three doctor appointments in two days, and then Christmas Eve felt like a total rush -- we went to Bobby's family's get-together (and were 30 min. late at that), had lunch with them, did gifts with his grandparents, aunt, cousins, etc., then headed up the dirt road to his mom's house for the gift exchange with the more immediate family. We got home just before 6 p.m., with plans to attend the 7 p.m. Christmas Eve service at our church. In the past, the Christmas Eve services have been at 4, 6, and 8; we always attended the 6. This year, they changed it to 3, 5, and 7. Going at 7 was not good ... we hadn't had dinner yet, and it ended up being too late for Maggie. She was squirmy and uncooperative during the service; only the dancers and the candle-lighting kept her calm and interested. Yes, we have dancers on Christmas Eve ... not my favorite, but lots of people enjoy them.

We finally got her fed and to bed around 9 p.m. The night just felt too rushed ... we were racing from one thing to the next, not to mention the FUN of dealing with a tired, grumpy, still-sort-of-sick 4-year-old. I didn't even get to eat dinner with my parents; I fixed dinner and then went to tend to Maggie, while they ate alone. Merry Christmas for sure. She shed a few tears over Jinglers' pending departure, so once she was asleep, I came down to the computer and typed two letters for her - one from Jinglers, leaving her a few small gifts (things I never got around to giving her during Jinglers' other antics) and saying "See you next year," and one from Santa, thanking her for taking such good care of Jinglers.

Santa's note also told Maggie she had lots of gifts downstairs, including a special one he'd hung on the tree just for her. "See if you can find it," he teased. When she came downstairs, she found a miniature Jinglers hanging on the tree. I'd found a small elf, identical to Jinglers, so I bought it and sewed a ribbon on top to hang him from the tree. I thought this would ease the pain of losing the real Jinglers, plus it would be a neat memento for her to have when she grows up and moves out - Maggie can hang the Jinglers ornament on her own tree and maybe even continue the tradition with her own family someday.

(In case you're wondering, Jinglers will spend the next 11 months in South Carolina at my parents' house ... the elf version of the Witness Protection Program. We didn't want to take a chance on Maggie accidentally finding him here at our house. From time to time, I've asked my mom to pose Jinglers, take his photo, and email it to me ... that way Maggie can get emails from him throughout the year.)

All this to say that the reality of Jinglers' departure wasn't nearly as bad as I'd planned for. On Christmas morning, Maggie wasn't sad at all; she wasn't even interested in the small gifts he'd left for her, nor did she want to hear what his letter said. She only perked up when I read Santa's letter about hiding a special gift on the tree for her. Later, when she started looking for it, she found it almost immediately!

Overall, Thursday was better. For one, Maggie stayed in her bed all night. I'd told her that Santa would be bringing her stocking to her room, and if he didn't see her in her bed, he might think she was gone and would have to take back all her gifts. Lo and behold, she stayed put, which just proves to me that she can stay in bed all night when she wants to. I don't know when she woke up; when I got up around 8, my parents were in her room playing with her, and they'd even managed to keep her from tearing into her stocking. (Santa leaves the stockings at the foot of each bed.) We all opened our stockings and then headed downstairs, where Maggie was thrilled to see the Rose Petal Cottage waiting for her. The RPC was sort of last year's hot toy, but she wasn't interested last year. This year, it was really a last-minute gift for us; we bought it a couple weeks before Christmas because she'd mentioned it a few times. We were so glad we'd gotten it for her, because in the days leading up to Christmas, all of a sudden it was all she talked about. So when she came downstairs and saw it, she exclaimed, "Finally! My Rose Petal Cottage! I've been waiting for this!!" It was so funny.

Inside the RPC were her other Santa gifts - the Bitty Baby changing table and accessory set and a night light (long story ...). We'd also put the new Bitty Baby crib in there (a gift from Bobby's dad). She played with these things all morning, which was good. I cooked breakfast, Bob and I both showered, and my brother arrived around 10 a.m. We ate and then opened our other gifts. Maggie was really on overload ... she'd tear into one gift and literally throw it aside to get to the next. At one point, she wasn't even fully opening her gifts. She'd rip enough of the paper to see what it was, then move on to the next one. It made me really want to scale back some next year.

It was interesting to see what she loved and what she didn't. For example, a giant Fancy Nancy doll was a big dud, and I was just sure she'd love it. Today, she reiterated that she doesn't like it and gave me the green light for taking it back (which is good since it wasn't cheap). On the other hand, she went nuts over a $9 sweatshirt featuring Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba. This was totally an impulse-buy on my part ... I saw it at WalMart and thought, "It's cheap, she likes Brobee, and she could use another sweatshirt." And I mean, she screamed with excitement when she saw it and insisted on putting the sweatshirt on right away and wearing it all day long. Another monster hit was the game Hungry Hippos, a gift from my brother. She and Uncle David played about 50 rounds of the game, and since then, the three of us have probably doubled that number. (Maggie and Bobby are playing it even as I type this.) As an added bonus, I think my brother managed to find the noisiest board game in existence.

I have a rule about not leaving the house on Christmas Day, so it was a nice respite from the busyness of earlier in the week. I cooked lunch while Maggie raced around the backyard with Uncle David. She had SO much fun playing with him, and I think he actually enjoyed playing with her too. (If not, he's a really good actor.) After lunch, we hung out talking and enjoying our new things (and each other). Bobby's dad stopped by, as did our friends Dee and John, and it was all in all a really nice day.

I didn't take a huge amount of pictures - too much other stuff going on - but I'll try to get the photos and video uploaded and into another post. At any rate, that's our Christmas in a nutshell. It started off crazy and stressful, but it ended on a good note.