I guess I look at blogging as a 'treat' now. I truly do think of it often, and wish I could write more than I do. But, alas, life cannot be written, and lived, simultaneously.

Christmas was lovely. I say I did pretty well with the fourth week of advent craziness. We got the tree and decorations up. It does seem like we get fewer and fewer home decorations up each year, though. We're just running out of room. I get a bit envious when I see pics of other homes so nice...but deep down, I am patient. I know my day will come.

We quit school about the same time the 'real' schools did, although we still had our stack of 50 Christmas books from the library. Lots of Tomie de Paola and Jan Brett. We made gingerbread cookies this year. Rose and Dominic went with Dad to cut the tree down at Young's. I guess other than that, things were pretty 'usual'.

We had the usual rush of Christmas eve (although Dan was off work this year since it fell on a Friday. Yeah!). My family's get together was okay. Karen came from CA which was really nice. It was a little overshadowed by the stress of my parents, though. For me, it was a wake-up call to make a plan to help alleviate some of their stress.

We went to midnight Mass at our own church (yeah!!!). Although it was nice, I was exhausted. The kids all slept, except bouncing Blaise. I sorely missed the music at Old St. Mary's. Our choir is better, but nothing like OSM. I missed the silent night as the last communion hymn, where they dim all the lights in the church, and sing the last verse in German. Everything else about the Mass was lovely, but I was just so tired. We did get to go home and go to bed, as we had stayed up until 3a the night before wrapping gifts. And ironically, on the way home after Mass, I heard a beautiful version of Silent Night on the radio.

The next morning I awoke to voices in the living room. Rose: "here's one for Sam, and here's one for Blaise...." I lay there a moment, semi-conscious, and a bit worried. Worried they would do something to the presents. I opened my eyes long enough to let the daylight in, and convince me that this day was finally here. Rose and the kids wandered in our room, full of excitement. When I asked her what time it was, through a yawn, I nearly jumped when she answered 9:45. Wow! We really did sleep in.

When we rolled out of bed and made our way to the living room, Rose told us how they organized all the presents, and had piles of presents according to whom they belonged. Oh, that Rose. :)

You'll crack up at our Christmas morning.... We seriously cleaned a few dishes and mixed a quiche to bake in the oven while opening presents. Our poor kids. They don't get to just wake up and run and open presents. I was still moving in slow motion. I could've slept more. I grabbed my cup of coffee an a piece of yummy cinnamon roll ( a wonderful gift from a friend and very much a treat to me), and sat down. Dan found a version of the gospel account of the Lord's birth, and we listened to that before opening the presents. So we opened our presents slowly, and joyfully. It was great fun. I loved hearing Sam's 'Wow!' after each one. They lingered on each one they got, inspecting it and wanting to open it up right there, and play with it. Blaise was lost in the pile of tissue and wrapping paper, and loving it. And I was so enjoying my coffee, roll, Christmas music, and family.

Dan and I don't do too many gifts to each other any more. And that's okay. I got him a few things. I loved seeing his face when he opened them. I got it right! All on my own! I found things that he truly was happy to receive.

He handed me my gift- a small box of sorts, and said, "it's not diamonds." "Oh, honey..." I began, knowing full well I didn't need any diamonds. Any kind of jewelry works for me. Oh, but it wasn't jewelry. I got a brand new ipod touch! I was in disbelief. I joked about that before Christmas, never thinking he would get me one! So I think the surprise was half the fun of it.

I could've lingered there with my family for all the rest of the day, but we slept late, and had to be moving on. We somehow got things together to go to his brother's house. Oh, after trying out the new Wii game we got. So what seemed like forever later, we arrived at Jesse's. It was so nice. It seems like Christmas with his family is always that way...much less stressed, more relaxed, just very nice. The food was yummy. Jesse and Anna can make an awesome lamb roast! The gifts were many, and very nice, as was the company. We stayed way too late, and I was very thankful that the next day was Sunday...not a work day. And Sunday...I just crashed. Slept, lounged, relaxed. All day.