Relatives visiting. Relatives staying at our house. Visiting relatives.
Chipping ice off the drives way so relatives don't slip and hurt themselves. Thalia, probably the most coordinated and able-to-balance of us all, slipped on the ice and injured her hand (a few hours before the recital), so it was really a mess out there.
Speed knitting due to sudden urge to make a scarf for someone's present.
Many gift baskets made and covered in shrinkwrap.
No Christmas cards sent, in spite of the fact that we had the coolest picture possible to use for the front. To make up for the fact that we didn't sent any out, I didn't bother reading most of the ones people sent us. So we're all even, right?
Santa picture:
Other people comment that they can't get their older kids to pose with Santa. It's an expectation at our house. And it's really cool to see the progression of pictures through the years. We have a photo album of all of Rick-and-siblings' Santa pictures from when they were growing up, so that helps show what we're aiming for here.
Having said all of that, this Santa was a little creepy looking. If you don't get the angle right in the photo it looks as though he has vampire fangs.
Sick rat -- URI (upper respiratory infection). We took her to the vet to get antibiotics. She seemed to be doing much better, but then we had to go out of town for a couple of days after Christmas to see relatives, and she never really recovered from missing the medicine doses/not having us here to care for her. She barely made it to 2011, and died during the night of Jan 1, curled up in her sleeping cube.
Watching Star Wars movies on Christmas Day. Watching Star Trek movies on New Year's Eve.
A visit from Santa. The traditional treasure hunt for the "big gifts". Much to my surprise, I also had a big gift at the end of the hunt -- an iPad.
Cookies made and left out for Santa. Missing from the picture are the redshirt being assimilated as a Borg:
Thalia and Annabeth saw Tron in 3D, and Tangled.
A friend from high school whom I haven't seen since graduation got in touch. Unexpected excitement there.
The remote on our stereo receiver went out -- the bulb is broken. Time spent trying to figure out which new one to get, since the old one was purchased in about 1985 and there are newer models available now. And if you're only going to purchase one of these once every 25 years you want to get the correct one.
Much time spent laughing. Also, crying. But more laughing, I think.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
I was starting to wonder if you went back to the North Pole with Santa... I know they don't blog much from there.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! Santa brought us an iPad too, which came in mighty handy for a 12-hour unexpected car trip a few days later.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a nice holiday.
That sounds like such a good holiday, actually. And I was thinking Santa looked a little off before you said something...
ReplyDeleteLoved your photo of the girls with Santa. I got Ben to pose with Santa only because he had his dog with him. Even though we don't enjoy that old family ritual anymore, NO ONE in this house better EVER say he doesn't believe in Santa or the stocking WON'T get filled...
ReplyDelete