Christmas: the good

Despite some very memorable disasters, we are now able to look back fondly on Christmas. A week of having the kids back in school, although I am still sick, has definitely helped. Here's a few of the things that went right.

An uncle who builds a sledding launch pad and then stays out in the cold to play.

Gingerbread cookies to decorate and eat every day for a week.

The first-ever family Nativity play, complete with costumes, props, and scenery.

Getting the present from Santa that you really, really wanted.

Girl toys--and no one to have to share with.

Your very own book, all about you!

Christmas morning with the people you like best, and in fabulous new pjs to boot.

Christmas: the bad and the ugly

This is the first year that Christmas got a subtitle. "Christmas 2008: The year it all went wrong."

The month started out ok, battling too many activities and too little time. But by Christmas Eve, which was hosted at our house, I had resorted to sweeping my arm across the kitchen counters, filling two large laundry baskets with assorted junk and stashing it in my bedroom so that the house would be "clean" (the baskets are still in my bedroom--I've been carrying laundry around in extra Costco boxes). Our food assignments were hurridly thrown together, after Tyler made the obligatory Christmas Eve grocery run for forgotten ingredients. And then, stupid me, I opened the oven door and poured cold chicken stock over the turkey. When the stock hit the hot glass roasting pan it shattered. Hmmm.

Not to be deterred, we dumped the turkey in the sink, rinsed it off with the kitchen sprayer hose and plopped it in a new pan. Christmas Dinner, only delayed an hour. I did think about grabbing the camera, but figured it best not to antagonize Tyler, wearing all our oven mitts and scraping chunks of glass out of a hot oven with a spatula.

By the end of Christmas Day both Charlotte and Carden had thrown up, victim to the stomach flu that swept through our entire extended family for the next week. Santa--next year just stick with coal. There's no way we were that naughty! The bug lasted for another week, forcing our visit from Caroline & Aaron's family to be severely curtailed. They found other relatives to take them in at the last minute, and our plans for five days of fun got condensed to one afternoon at a kids play area and lunch at The Pie Pizzeria.

But, as my brother-in-law Dave pointed out to me--no one remembers the Christmases where everything went smoothly. True. Christmas 2008, we'll never forget you, but some experiences you only need once!