24 hours to go...

Crap!  Where does the time go???  

A little late for the Christmas wrap up, but better late than pregnant....  

A little inside humor :)    (Not me!)  

So, the Christmas Eve open house was as it always is~ a blast!  I think I made it to bed sometime around 4am.  And that, folks, is without alcohol involved (on my part, anyway)  

It is strange how the party has evolved over the years.  When it was started, way back in the day, my brother and I would be sent to bed around 9 or 10pm, while the adults laughed and exchanged the stories of their youths.... and guffawed some more.  So loud, it would keep us awake.  

These days, it is my brother and I, and our friends, staying up to the wee hours of the morning, laughing over the stupid shit we did when we were kids....  It's amazing that we turned out so well, and out of prison ;)  

What's even funnier (funny in the OMFG, I am so freaking old now type ofway) is that one of our friends now has a 10 year old son, who got to mingle among the adults this year.  I knew the look on his face well.  It was the same one my brother and I had once we were of age to listen ;)  

Guess things have come full circle.  Well, until Grace and her friends take our places at the adult table, anyway :)  

Christmas morning, we changed things up a bit.  Normally, we wouldn't open our immediate family gifts until after we'd come back from breakfast at my Aunt's.  This year, with Grace being well aware of presents and what was inside the wrapped boxes and bags, we couldn't hold it off.   

She woke up later than she has in her entire short life~ 8am!  She ran through the bedroom yelling "Wake up, Mama!  It's Christmas!"  Then she woke up everyone else :)  

I wasn't feeling too well at all.  Mom asked if Gracie could open some presents, so I told her to let her open her Santa gifts until I got my bearings.  Actually, I think I yelled "I don't care what she opens right now, just not ours."  I really felt nauseous.... but it went away pretty quickly.  That happens to me all the time if I don't sleep at least 7 hours straight.  Messed up metabolism of mine....  

She liked her Santa gifts well enough.  Those are little stocking stuffer type gifts.  Things we pick up here and there at sales.  Once I made it downstairs, she opened her real presents.  She picked the Noddy doll gift first ~ some kind of instincts that one has.  She just squealed, hugged him, and was jumping up and down :)  He made her day!    

Noddy was actually a gift from my brother.  I did bid on him to win, but it was on his account.  He had no idea what to get her and I already bought my gifts.  Grace didn't care who he was from, she was happy to have this little guy and some of his stuff :)  I have Noddy stickers everywhere.  

She got a Leapfrog desk from her Dad.  She runs to it while yelling "I gotta go to work!"  She got five new outfits from her grandparents (his parents) and $50.00.  His brother, Robert, got her a Neopet tiger, that she has not put down.  He's become Noddy's new 'ride' :)  

Wayne's sister, Helen, got Gracie some outfits, too.  And they met on Thursday.  (I had never met his sister, either :)  Wayne was working, so Grace and I went alone. Kind of uncomfortable, but I keep reminding myself its not about me....  I still have issues with that concept ;)  

My friend, Johnny, got Grace her first Breyer horse :)  She has a couple of mine from my childhood, but I won't get all the old stuff down because some of it is way too complicated for her right now....  

The rest is the usual little kid stuff like art supplies, under clothes, etc...  Overall, I'd say my girl raked it in :)   

My holiday hasn't been too bad, either.  Seems that it took a lot longer for me to prepare for the time that went by so very quickly.  I didn't end my candy making until four hours before the party began.  Well worth it though :)   

I mostly get gifts of money, since I can never decide on stores for gift cards.  I go through store phases where I hit the same one for awhile, then move on to my next conquest/fetish/obsession.  Like, two weeks ago, it was Michael's.  This week it's Meijer.  Next week may be Menard's or Lowe's.... then there's Starbuck's ;)  I always go there....  

Told Shelley, who works there, to find out why their coffee is so addicting.  She said it was the water filtration system.  Bull.  I think its all in the beans.  Even the grocery store bought stuff isn't the same.... and that was with bottle water, too.   So, money goes anywhere I do.  It is convenient  :)  

Mom loved her re-lined drawers.  My brother followed suit and gave her a certificate entitling her to 5 unconditional favors she may ask of him.  She loved that, too.  Think Mom had the best Christmas she has had in a long time.....  

(My parents will not ask my brother to help with anything around the house because they feel like he works all the time at Johnny's, fixing his place up.  In his 'spare' time he also works on restoring his 63 Ford Falcon, so they feel like they burden him.... which is so untrue.)  

Anyway, after presents, we went to my Aunt's for our annual breakfast of lox, bagels, cream cheese, oyster casserole, scrambled eggs, red onions and tomatoes (for the bagels).  My Aunt's ex boyfriend started this breakfast over 20 years ago.  He's gone and we're still eating it :)  We call it our Christmas Jewish breakfast :)   (The ex was Jewish, we are not) It is yummy though.   

Get this, after 20 years of me eating only the eggs and the bagels sans the lox and oysters... blehhh... my Aunt makes a big deal of it and they gave me, and only me, a slice of ham.  Now, I knew my uncle, Tom, did not eat the oysters or the lox.  He never has!  But my Aunt learned this year that he doesn't either~ now, I think they'll be two pieces of ham next year.   

I felt bad because I liked eating what we had at our breakfast and I don't make it a big deal.  It isn't.  I was happy.  I didn't have the heart to tell them I don't care for ham much.  I ate some of it and, luckily for me, Gracie wanted in on that action ;)   

We also draw names for our family since there are only eight adults and one child.  We used to write down three things, and the person buying picked one of them.  Nowadays, we just put what we want.  No surprises for us.    

All in all, my Christmas was a good one.  Everyone is healthy and in good spirits.  Old friends are still old friends, and the new ones are blending right in.... passing to the next generation :)    

Drifting towards a new year.  New beginnings.  Fresh starts.  And.... as a few people have reminded me lately, this time isn't only for the monumental decisions one starts or stops.  It is also remembering not to take the little things in life for granted....  

It's been another great year knowing many of you.  Some of us have only just begun....  

Welcoming 2006 and all it has to offer  :)  

Cat