Coming Up for Air

Are you trying to tell me that Christmas was only four days ago?  It feels like it's been at least two weeks! I think it even felt like that on Christmas afternoon.  I think it's probably because the buildup to the big day is so massive that by the time it actually comes and goes at the same old rate of time passing as every other day, no momentous slowing of time despite all the preparations I've made, I'm a little shocked.  I think it may be also because the kids were so nutty, so totally out of control with insane jolliness throughout the entire month of December and now they just have cabin fever and are excited to get back to school. 

So yes, Christmas 2010 has come and gone and we're looking forward to the New Year.  We really did have a fun holiday, though it will never be story-book perfect like it is in my head.  I don't think it's that way for anyone.  If so, please get in touch with me and let me know how you're doing that.

Christmas Eve was spent by Troy and me deciding that the kids absolutely MUST get out of the house.  We wanted to do something appropriate for the snowy holiday only there was one problem.  No snow.  We had a huge storm around Thanksgiving and one or two in December, but Christmas this year was decidedly green in our neck of the woods.  Luckily we live near many canyons which have been pelted by snow.  So we bundled up, picked up some sleds, and headed over to Milcreek Canyon.  Unfortunately, the last storm that hit sent rain to Milcreek rather than snow, so the snow already on the ground was pretty hard and icy by the time we got there.  Happily our kids didn't really know the difference and had an absolute ball sledding down this minuscule little hill right by the road.  Well, Bundle wasn't very hip on the whole sledding thing.  I took her down once and it totally terrified her and she cried for 1/2 an hour until I took her back to the car, where we ate crackers for an hour as Troy wore out the other two. 

After heading home to warm up, give poor Bundle a nap and do a little food preparation, we headed over to my sister's house for dinner and Romney family gifts.  Neither of my brothers could make it, which we were sad about, but we managed to have a nice time anyway.  For many many years now we've had a traditional Mexican feast on Christmas Eve - posole, ceviche, sopes - but since the Mexican food experts were not going to be in attendance this year Margaret and I decided we'd switch it up and little.  We kept the theme of a foreign food well known by a Romney child, but switched from Mexician to Korean.  (I was a missionary in Korean in 1994-95...wow, getting to be a long time ago!)  We feasted on our delicious food, but we did that after we opened gifts.  Now, I know that it's normally polite to wait for a while until presents are opened, but because one of Margaret's daughters was heading off to her dad's place early in the evening we did presents first.  And guess what.  I think it made all the difference in the world in my kids' behavior.  They really enjoyed the evening instead of pestering me unrelentingly about when when when are we opening presents? Now, maybe I should be a better mom and teach them patience and long suffering but I say whatever.  On Christmas Eve, what makes them happy makes us all happy!  We played a couple of games, we decorated cookies, we went home early.  It was great.