Merry Christmas!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We did! It was so much fun. We got up and everyone gathered at my mother's to open presents. We decided not to do our own Christmas here since Eli and I already knew what Brayden was getting and he's just not old enough this year to be excited. Plus I love having a big get-together. It's tons of fun to pass out the presents one-by-one and watch everyone open things. By far my favorite part about Christmas is giving gifts. I really do love it. I spend a lot of time and thought on each present and I love watching people's faces as they open their gift. This year I made a recipe box for all the adult women (and by proxy, the men) complete with over 100 recipes. They all loved it. I knitted my brother a beanie in his high school's colors - blue and gold - and had it say Panthers across the front. I put bricks in the box with it to throw him off. It was really fun to watch his face when he went to pick it up! For my sister, I am arranging a Glamour Shots-style photo shoot with my father-in-law. She found the pictures from the Glamour Shots Mom and I did ten years ago and wanted her own.
My great-grandmother came back this year to give a gift from Beyond. She does that every few years. There is this beautiful, heavy glass unicorn bust nightlight that always sat on her nightstand when I was little. And all her kids and the grandkids and I slept over and fell asleep to its glow at some point when we were little. It was given to me at Christmas years ago when I was in high school. I found it in a box a few weeks ago and I don't really have anywhere to put it that's safe from destructo-baby, so I passed it on.
Brayden, of course, got positively showered with gifts, both from us and from my mother. There will be no bored baby in my house any longer! In fact, he got so many, I'm going to have to rotate them so I don't overwhelm him. But I'm really excited about all the things he got. Eli and I got some cool stuff, too. Eli got lots of books and book-related items. I guess everyone got the message he likes to read. :) I got a slowcooker and a cheese grater and a sweep & vac and a few other odds and ends. I'm really excited about the sweep & vac...now I can clean my floors while the baby is asleep! And I want to be buried with my cheese grater. Seriuosly. I'm telling you, there's a whole narrative about my trials and tribulations with cheese graters. I was given one when I got married, but I didn't really start to cook until we moved back to Mobile. Since then, I've made lots of things that required shredded cheddar cheese. This cheese grater bites. It's just a little flat grater on a handle and was really meant for harder cheeses...the holes are tiny! So grating cheese takes for bloody ever! I complain every time I use the dern thing. Well, my cousin got wind of my disgust for the cheese grater. She's a distributor for Pampered Chef, so she bought me their cheese grater for my last anniversary. You're thinking "how wonderful!" right? I thought so, too, until I used the thing. It's one of those kinds they use at Olive Garden to grate Parmesan onto your salad. Great for hard cheeses, but still, I complain every time I grate cheddar. It hurts your hand to use and the cheese gets stuck in the barrel and it's nigh on impossible to clean. I have grown to hate it. So I asked for a plain, old fashioned, four-sided, stand-up cheese grater. I know, it's like a $5 utensil, but you have to understand that it's just not an expense I could justify seeing as how I already had two cheese graters that by all accounts do the job necessary. (I really must get better at indulging myself in small items that will make my life easier and happier.) Anyway, long story short, I got one!!! YAY!!! I very nearly cried. Seriously. It's my favorite Christmas present! (Kind of pathetic, I know...but it makes me happy.) Erin told me that my Christmas list sucked, what with it all consisting of practical items and no fun stuff, but really, I'm just tickled pink with all my new practical gadgets. And next week, Mom is giving me the money to go out and buy my diaper bag that I've been eyeing for months! (Yet another $30 I couldn't justify spending on myself but that will make my life easier. Plus, it is too darn cute!!!)
After presents we all sat and chatted and played around until lunch was finished. My mother loves to cook and she always makes a huge Christmas dinner. This year was certainly no exception. We spent the whole day over there eating good food and goofing off. It was just a really nice day all around. I hope you all had a great day, and I was thinking about every one of you today. Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas...

...around here. I finally have all of my holiday shopping done (well, short of one present for Brayden, but that's it). And I just finished wrapping all the presents I have here at the house. I still have a couple that won't be delivered until Christmas eve. I was forced to order them since none of the stores had them in stock. Wouldn't you know it, I went out last night and they were all in stock again. So I hate that I'm paying shipping for things that I could go buy right now, but oh well. I wanted to make sure he got them. He's getting a ton of stuff. Well, a ton of stuff by our standards considering he hasn't had new toys since the few he got on his birthday, and before that, none since last Christmas. So I'm really excited to be able to get him some new things. He has been getting so frustrated around here lately. He's played with all his toys so much he's just downright bored with them. Well, he won't be bored for many months now, at least. I am amazed at how hard it is for Santa to find stocking stuffers for a toddler. I mean, I can't just fill it up with candy (although I...I mean Santa...will be supplementing with candy...I figure Mom & Dad can eat it :) ). But I managed to find several little things that should do the trick. I wish I had more money to spend on family. We only spent money on the kids. I spent time on the adults' presents. Everyone's getting the same thing and I hope they like it. Well, Brayden and I are headed out to return some things. I overspent and bought some stuff I didn't need, so it's all going back today. After that I'm putting up my tree! Yes, I'm just now putting up a tree. But I figured I'd rather have it up longer on the back end of the holiday than put it up too soon and go crazy trying to keep Brayden away from it before Christmas. That and buying late in the season means a huge discount on the price of the tree!