Christmas 2008

So this year, we decided to do Christmas at my brother's house in Ft. Wayne on Christmas Day. Since this included a drive, Brian thought we should go on Christmas Eve and stay at my mom's house. I hemmed and hawed about it because I thought it would be more effort than it was worth. However, I gave in and after a ton of packing(gifts, food, clothes, etc..)away we went. In retrospect, I should have stuck to my guns. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed being with the family and loved sharing the holiday with them. However, our children do much better in their own environment...and so do their parents. We got little sleep both nights and got yelled at by a 4 yr. old much of the time. Our stress levels were elevated, to say the least. We got to mom's house around 4:45 pm on Wednesday. We grabbed dinner before we got there. Hayden played and Lauren showed off her crawling skills (video to come later). Once it was bedtime, Lauren screamed and yelled and Hayden messed around for about 2 hours (like every other kid his age anticipating Christmas). The grown-ups played Wii forever until it was time for Santa to come. On a side note...my shoulder is still hurting from playing Wii tennis. Anyway, Hayden was up at 5 AM our time to check out the gifts. I was able to keep him quiet until 7 AM when the sun came up. We watched t.v. and snuggled on the couch. Once everyone was up, we got busy opening gifts. Hayden had a blast and every gift was the one he had always wanted. Lauren didn't really know what to do with the wrapping paper. She just wanted to eat it and play with the toys. Brian got two North Face clothing items, a guardian bell for his bike, a Harley Davidson 'Trooper' shirt, traditional sweatpants that zipped, socks, & cash. His favorite things were the bell and HD shirt. I got a few things in my stocking, but my big gift was the earrings I got for our anniversary two weeks ago (see the previous post). Mom got a stainless steel watch (she is allergic to nickel) and more gifts at Jake's house (picture album, boxes, & frames with pics of our family in 2008 and a pretty scarf). We got up and around and made food to take to Jake's. Once we got there, we were greeted by a beautiful tablescape and delicious appetizers. Erin worked hard to put together a nice Italian themed Christmas dinner. I started off with a Key Lime martini. We had beef wrapped onions, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms, cheese stuffed olives, and shrimp for appetizers. Dinner included Casa D'Angelos house salad, stuffed shells, lasanga, green beans, bread sticks, bread, wine, and Asti. For desert, Erin made individual chocolate cake/brownie that was served hot with peppermint ice cream. I'm not sure what it was called besides for yummy! Needless to say, we were all stuffed. Then we opened gifts. The kids got great things from everyone...although I'm still trying to figure out where to put it all now that we are home. After all of the festivities, we headed back to mom's for another long night with little sleep. Lauren did some crying throughout the night...I think she was constipated. Mom had to work on Friday and we planned to go home that morning. Right after we got up, she called and said to wait for a while before leaving. It took her a long time to get in because the ice was so bad. Brian made some calls and found out that the entire Toll Road had been shut down and things were an icy mess. So, we hung out a while until lunch and headed out. We stopped in town and had Pizza Hut (the lunch buffet was yummy...gotta love taco pizza!) before making our way home. The roads were just wet at this point, until we got to Valpo. They were icy here. So, now we are just enjoying being home and relaxing. Hayden has a fever today. Not sure where it came from, so we are just trying to bring that down. That was our Christmas in a nutshell. I hope that you had a wonderful holiday and that you were able to celebrate with people you love. God's blessings to you for 2009!