Christmas Day. After staying up way too late on Christmas Eve, I was not getting up too early on Christmas Day. My children are also way past the point of getting up early to see what "Santa" has delivered. So it was, at eleven, I decided to start rousing the troops. This year, as a change of pace, we had breakfast first.
Christmas breakfast has varied through the years. When Jason and Jessica were younger they loved cinnamon buns, then it was either waffles or egg and cheese sandwiches on Lender's Bagels. Now, Jason enjoys cooking us eggs on the holiday. Our breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, pork roll and bacon. Jason also wanted Belgium waffles, but I still needed to cook vegetables to take to dinner so I diplomatically skipped over the request.
The bayberry candle, lit for good luck on Christmas Eve, burned long into the day of Christmas. Mark asked about blowing it out and nearly sent all of us into a tizzy. We could all use a little luck going into the new year and my children were not about to take a chance of messing that up. We all need a little superstition sometimes!
The stockings were over-stuffed this year, even mine thanks to Mark. The area under the tree could not hold any more gifts. Santa was very generous this year!
I always stress about the holiday. I want so much to please everyone on my list and to make the day memorable. This year I think everyone was pleased. Jason had asked for Coogi sweaters and I was able to secure a few on e-bay that I thought he would like. Having never bid on e-bay before, I was a little over-whelmed by the process. I persevered and won a few items. Seems I did a good job cause Jason was thrilled. He tried on one sweater immediately and that became his holiday outfit.
Jessica was a little more difficult to shop for, but in the end everything worked out. I surprised her with a new pair of boots. Unfortunately the boots hadn't arrived so, at 3am, I did the only thing I could. I wrapped her old boots. She was so excited when she looked in the package. Her expression changed when she lifted the boots up and noticed how worn they were. We all had a good laugh about that.
I really don't think Jessica would be too happy if I shared a picture of her from Christmas morning, so I won't. But I don't think Mark will mind - cause he looks good any time!
I really enjoyed having Mark here for the holidays. We enjoyed having the time to spend with the kids and just hanging together. Creating traditions of our own and easing into cohabitation during the holiday season has really been a great experience.
We took our time and really enjoyed our Christmas morning/early afternoon. The celebration moved to my sister's house where Jason and Mark helped William to become more comfortable with the electric guitar that Santa brought. Jason even managed to fix a broken string so he could do some serious playing.
Christmas is my baby sister's birthday so, in addition to the delicious meal made by my brother-in-law, we had ice cream cake! Yum!
Our holiday generally ends on the early side. This year was a little later than normal. Poor Jessica needed to be at work at 9am on Saturday so she needed to catch the bus from Philly at a reasonable hour. Since Jason lives in Philly, we also dropped him off at home. He coaxed us inside with the promise of Balveny 21, didn't mean anything to me but Mark was not about to pass that up. They shared a drink and we all watched a bit of the Dallas/Phoenix game. So sad when we had to leave, didn't like leaving my baby home alone, but I was not sure that I could stay up much longer.
Home, more pie, conversation and my favorite, Twinnings Christmas Tea.
What a wonderful holiday. Life moves so fast at times and it feels good to sit and spend time with those that we love. As the year draws to a close I am thankful for the experiences, memories and blessings that 2010 brought to me. I am very grateful.
