Singing Lessons

Ahhh, the presents are opened (with scads and scads of them from my parents), Santa ate his cookies (and the reindeer ate their carrots), the first toys were broken (at 8:17am, four minutes after Little Miss started playing with her Bakugan), and the overtired, overstimulated wee ones are once again nestled in their beds.

We had a great Christmas, although we still haven't learned our lesson. Once again the wee ones had a gift opening frenzy that precluded my husband and I noticing exactly who each gift was from. My aunt, my sister-in-law, and my husband's cousins gave gifts, as did my sister and parents. Annnnnnnnd we're really not sure what is from whom in most cases, although we're pretty sure my sister-in-law declined to buy me a gift after insisting my husband buy her husband a wii game in addition to the Dippin' Dots maker for her daughter and college gear for her. Yep, we'll be making the calls of shame yet again tomorrow and swearing we'll do better next year.

Mister Man loved his gifts, although he did notice that there was no Crayola Crayon Maker. After bursting into tears, he allowed me to explain the lengths we went through to try to find one for him and that we'll go together to buy one once they're restocked in stores, which will make it more special for him. And he was good with that, luckily.

We made it to my aunt and uncle's (where, oops, we both made potatoes au gratin as my uncle merely told me to make a side dish and to not do sweet potatoes) and back safely, although the temps dropped quickly which immediately the rain that had been falling all day. My mom broke the only glass at the gathering (phew), and there was no drama.

Little Miss finally changed out of her Halloween shirt and Easter slippers (which she wore to "trick" Grandma) and into the ummm 2T Christmas dress that somehow still fits her. It's no longer floor length, but I still wouldn't believe the size if I hadn't looked at the tag myself. She, of course, managed to shred her tights, but she at least kept them on. We're making progress.

And we're all happy....

Little Miss took awhile to get into the holiday spirit last week:



But once she did, she was so proud of her abilities (she unfortunately learned the right words before I remembered to tape her more interesting rendition):



Which of coure meant that Mister Man had to show us how well he knew the songs that he learned for his Christmas program:



I'm content. I'd like to just hold onto this feeling for a little bit longer. Merry Christmas to you (assuming you're celebrating), and I hope it was a quiet and peaceful day (if you aren't)!