Our Christmas this year

We had a pretty good Christmas yesterday, even though family wasn't around. I missed them all terribly and kept wondering "what would Millie say" or "I wonder if Allison would be showing me some kind of decoration on these gingerbread men" or "I think Nathan would laugh about that!" I also thought about my parents, other siblings and nieces/nephews. I really kept thinking about my family living far away. You just really miss the ones you love on Christmas when they're not around.

Anyway, yes, we made gingerbread men! Woot! I haven't done that for YEARS because the last time I made them, they ended up all looking like mutants. LOL When I told my daughter, she really wanted to give it a try, so I removed my whole self-imposed "ban" on making them and we decided to do it together. I let her do most of the work, since she won't learn unless she does it herself. She really had a go at using the rolling pin and she had fun cutting the cookies out. I didn't, however, let her flour the surface or rub flour on the rolling pin before using it again. I was too nervous she'd get flour on the floor. (Now I realize that's silly to worry about, because the floor's gonna get a little messy when there's a kid cooking in the kitchen!) The gingerbread men turned out mostly fine. Only two of them looked like mutants. And that's okay. We'll still keep them! I let my daughter decorate most of them; I decorated two. They were yummy and I was happy that we both got to do that together in her first experience of making gingerbread men. Yay! I can take gingerbread men off my list of "foods I can't make." And speaking of "food," we had the usual cinnamon rolls for breakfast while watching the movie A Christmas Story. (That's pretty much what we do on Christmas morning EVERY year.)

As for the gifts, my daughter got a coloring book and colored pencils (thank you, Millie and Als!!), footed pajamas, clothes, books, movies and computer stuff. The "computer stuff" are sound devices so she can hear all the sounds on the computer (sound card and speakers) and also an educational computer game. I was hoping she'd get a math game, because she's had trouble with math in school, but it's a combination learning game. Math and phonics. And that's okay! The big kahuna of her gifts, though, was a guitar. It was on her list and, luckily, I found one that was marked down. She went nuts over it and said this was the best Christmas ever because she got a guitar. Her baby brother kept playing with it, though, and so did HER FATHER! LOL He kept fiddling around with it. At one point, she got frustrated because he kept playing around with it when SHE wanted to play with it. I was ready to march over to them and say, "No fighting over the guitar, you two!"

So now she has a keyboard, guitar, microphone and flute. I joked to my friend that she's trying to be her own band with all these instruments. Now all she needs are drums and she'll be all set!

My little baby got A LOT of toys for Christmas. Mostly toy cars because he loves cars. It was cute watching him push the little cars around. He also got the footed pajamas, movies, books and other clothes.

As for me, I got pajamas (hey! PJ's are a hot gift this year!), chocolates, Starbucks card (thanks, Millie and Als!!), cofffeeeee, and a Target card. Woot!

I also got story ideas, and yes, they were BOTH Christmas-related. Yay! I tried to figure out if I should start writing the stories, but I pretty much realized that was out after things got pretty busy. My husband spent most of the time on the couch watching TV while I was cleaning up, refereeing the children and making our ham dinner. Ugh! I was exhausted at day's end. But I didn't forget those story ideas. And I didn't forget the scene idea I have for the next book in my MG series, either. Woot! So it was a good "writing day" even if I didn't get to write. At least now I'll be able to get back into the writing with brand new ideas to write about. Christmas didn't end at midnight last night. It's still here for a few more days. At least, I think so. And I'm going to GRAB that Christmassy feeling and spirit and put it into words.