Finally a few minutes to sit!

I still can't believe Christmas has come and gone. It seems like we waited forever for it to get here, only to have it immediately leave. Sigh....

We attended the candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve, a wonderful way to begin the celebrating. The service was a sort of "unplugged" version of our usual Sunday mornings with lots of music and even a solo sung by our minister. It was wonderful....who knew he had such a lovely voice! My mom and sister came with us, as well as Betsy's boyfriend. Mom and Jody came home with us and we relaxed in front of the tree for a bit....and opened a few gifts. The next morning the girls were happy to see that Santa had been there, and we spent an hour or so opening gifts. The girls were thrilled with all of their presents....

Of course we also had wee one's birthday to celebrate, so she got to open those gifts as well. Everything she got was somehow related to "The Nightmare Before Christmas". She now has a hoodie, shirt, pj's, slippers, lip gloss,  pillow, blanket, PS2 game, soundtrack and special edition DVD to keep her occupied! LOL. She just loves that movie.

After the gifts were opened, we went to church and then came home to have Christmas with mom and Jody. When my mom came over she gave the girls their gifts....portable dvd players, which they were thrilled with. Each of them also got a tub of chocolate peppermint reception sticks (thin peppermint sticks covered half way up with chocolate) "from" my dad. He always used to have reception sticks on his headboard in the bedroom, and he would share them with the girls. They used to sneak into his room and get them all the time....of course he knew they were taking them but would act like he didn't know where they were disappearing to.

Later in the afternoon we packed up and went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. It was a nice visit, thankfully. JB and I put aside work issues and enjoyed the afternoon as a family, which made everything much nicer. We actually had a great time, especially playing bingo. My aunt always has the quirkiest ideas for things to do. Last year she got wee one a set of handbells and after we were done eating, we were each assigned a bell and we played Christmas music. It was hysterical....and after the first 20 or so times, it started to sound pretty good! Of course, I'm not sure how the neighbors enjoyed it, being that we were out on the back porch! This year we had a great time with the bingo. She had bought 10 gifts and wrapped them, so that after someone got a bingo, they could choose a prize. Wee one won the first game, then the second. By the time she won the third game she said she didn't want to play anymore. Janice asked her if there was something wrong and she said, "No, I just think I've won enough. And I want mom to pick a prize instead of me this time." Awwwww.....everyone thought that was so nice....and she ended up being the caller from that point on. We decided since things were moving rather slowly, that we would not clear our cards on the last game to get things going. Of course my sister and I got Bingo at the same time....so like the immature brats that we are, we raced over to the tree and pushed and shoved each other to get the gifts we wanted! LOL....we stayed until 7 and then it was back home to wind down.

I didn't go anywhere on the 26th....I wasn't going to fight the crowds. Of course I have been out since and now have more to pack away until next year. To be honest, I didnt' see anything that was a real bargain....but it didnt' stop me from buying! LOL. I did have all of my decorations down the day after, however, I was told to leave the trees up until New Years. Guess what? I'm taking them down tomorrow! Oh, if you could only see the girls rooms. It looks like a tornado went through them! I can't wait to get organizing!

Okay, I am outta here for now. I have come down with a terrible cough and I feel like my head weighs 20 lbs. I hope that everyone had a merry Christmas!