Christmas Highlights -- share yours!

[Libby Pritchett]

So, now that we're winding down for the day... let's hear what your favorite parts were!

Obviously, for my kids, nothing tops the Wii. They appreciated ALL the gifts, but the Wii has been in use pretty much ALL day long. Thank goodness for rechargable batteries, huh?

My most thoughtful gift came from my 9 year old dd. She made me a coupon book filled with things that she would do (make my bed, make dinner, clean the living room, etc, etc, etc). I seriously bawled like a baby because it was obvious she had put so much time and thought into it.

In other gifts, I got... Seasons 1 and 2 of How I Met Your Mother on DVD, Season 2 of The Office on DVD, $45 in iTunes gift cards, the new Harry Potter movie on DVD, and a $100 VISA gift card for some online digital scrap shopping. When you add this to the new laptop I just ordered over the weekend, I'd say I made out pretty darn good (especially when my new ipod from last month was *supposed* to be my Christmas gift).

Now, we're unwinding. I'm getting ready to do my annual Christmas journaling, and then I'm going to chill for the rest of the night. I see an early bedtime in my future. Tomorrow, I clean clean clean this house -- there will be NO sign of Christmas in my house by lunchtime. LOL!

So, give us the scoop... how was YOUR Christmas?

(And Meghan specifically... I wanna know what was in the box!!!!)

[FlirtatiousBrat]

(And Meghan specifically... I wanna know what was in the box!!!!)

i know hehe...i'm gonna make ya'll wait a bit longer though :grumbles i know:

I want to make a graphic and I have had NO PS time today at all..I promise by noon tomorrow ya'll will know :)

we are VERY happy though!! hehe

[newfiemountiewife]

Sounds like you had a great day Libby! I just got my monkeys in bed, they were so tired.

The Wii was a HUGE hit here too, the kids played all day. Unfortunately we had our first Wii accident, Amelia got nailed in the mouth, and I may have to seek out a dentist for her tomorrow, one of her teeth just doesn't look quite right. The problem now is, we live in a small community, and we don't have a dentist full time anyway, just two days a week. So it may be difficult, I will take her out of town if I have to. After she got hit, she bled and cried a lot, she also has a huge bruise on her knee from falling down. She seems in good spirits though. Benjamin woke us up at 5:30, he was so cute.

Highlight for me, was the 22 inch wide screen monitor Tony got me, plus, XM satellite radio, for my van! Woohoo! Benjamin made me a sweet homemade present, and a card. I also got $50 in scrapping bucks, Tony said he had no idea how to buy scrap stuff for me LOL. My brother Steve got me Season 4 of CSI, so I'm looking forward to a snow storm for a marathon day!

It was a fun day, but really, that was so early for my kids, and they were pooped by the end of the day. Poor Rae just cried and cried at the end. They are all snoring, Amelia wanted to sleep with me tonight, and after all she's been through today, I couldn't say no LOL.

I had a great day, I hope everyone else did also :)

[Hom74]

It's a Christmas MESS in our living room right now lol. And the girls have more presents to go! In about 45 minutes we head over to my parents for dinner and presents (yay - all the mess will be in their living room haha) and Saturday we will have dinner at the ILs...and yep, more presents and yay again that the unwrapping fiasco will be somewhere not here lol. We did miss my family's bigger celebration (w/my extended family) last Saturday night as we were driving back from our San Diego/LA vacation that day :0(

I think the highlight of this week would of course have happened at Disneyland :) We saw Fantasmic (or whatever that show is called now lol) and the Fireworks right after. My oldest really thought that she could do magic! With the fireworks going off, she would be waving her hands....opening and closing them and really thinking that she was the one making the fireworks go. Priceless I tell you. And no...I didn't get a photo :0( I actually didn't take as many photos as usual b/c of the rain. And also we were sitting on the wall during the show/fireworks and we were each holding our girls and w/my Rebel...I can't take photos that up close. And it's such a magical feel at Disney...they even made it 'snow'.

So...that's the thing that's made me smile the most so far :0)

[joelsgirl]

We had to make Jack keep opening presents; everytime he opened one, he wanted to stop and play with it, lol. We spent the morning at the beach; it was Max's first trip out to the island (he's 3 months), and he did not like the feel of salt water on his little legs. But joel & Jack had a ball, which was fun for me to watch. Except that when I went out to play with him, he looked at me and said, "where's my Bapa?" (Bapa is the Malay word for father) :( This from the kid who cried hysterically the entire first year of his life if anyone other than his mom tried to hold him.

When we got home and got rested, we wrapped presents to take to the kids I teach; they were SO excited. It made me wish we'd had more money to spend on them, but there were 15 of them, including all of their brothers and sisters. Then we did our family Christmas tree, where we have an ornament for each year symbolizing something special God has done for us that year and we tell the story. This is the first time we've done it with Jack, and it was so much fun!

So anywya, that was my super boring Christmas Day recap. My Christmas presents will come in January when my in-laws come to visit. Hope everyone had a happy day!
Kellie

Oh, and Meghan, I can't WAIT to find out what you're having!
Jamie, so sorry about your dd's accident. poor thing!

[Hom74]

Awwww...poor Amelia :( Hopefully you can get to a dentist sooner rather than later.

I guess Wii's pretty popular this year. That's what my sister told me that the family was playing on Saturday...their usual entertainment is karaoke. One of my cousins got so into it that when he was boxing w/my other cousin...he actually wasn't facing the tv but was facing his cousin lol. Glad he didn't knock him out for real!

[Libby Pritchett]

The Wii was a HUGE hit here too, the kids played all day. Unfortunately we had our first Wii accident, Amelia got nailed in the mouth, and I may have to seek out a dentist for her tomorrow, one of her teeth just doesn't look quite right. The problem now is, we live in a small community, and we don't have a dentist full time anyway, just two days a week. So it may be difficult, I will take her out of town if I have to. After she got hit, she bled and cried a lot, she also has a huge bruise on her knee from falling down. She seems in good spirits though. Benjamin woke us up at 5:30, he was so cute.


Ack! Jamie! That's tough! I'm a dental assistant... is there anything I can do to help? Can you describe what the tooth looks like? Is it turning a dark color? Baby tooth or permanent? I'd definitely have it checked out if you're concerned... they can take an xray to see if it did any more serious damage. And you can always give Tylenol/Motrin for the pain if it's bothering her.

Hope you can get it checked out soon!

[Tracyfish]

Kellie, we had the same problem...L.J. wanted to stop and play with EVERYTHING he opened at our house this morning. We kinda rushed him through it which I hate, but we had so many places to be. Brunch at my parents, lunch at the inlaws, afternoon and sweets at my aunt's house, back to my parents to load up all the gifts and one final stop back at the inlaws to pick up our food to take home. Whew!!!! What a day.

L.J.'s favs this year were the Mickey Mouse Binocuscope and T-ball set as well as the bicycle and tricycle from the grandparents. I think we may have to zip tie his feet to the pedals so he learns to keep them on there (hehe).

Now I am staring at a PILE of toys that I have no idea where to put and all I can think about it hooking up my DVD Burner...I guess the toys will have to wait until tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a restful night after all the excitement of the day.

[newfiemountiewife]

Libby, thanks for offering to help!

She is 4 (will be 5 in less than a month), but was a late teether (14 months), so I expect she will be later losing them as well, which is why I am a little concerned. It's one of the front two (baby tooth), and this tooth is normally out a tad farther than the other, but now is much further in than the other. That's the best way I can explain it. It doesn't feel loose, which you would think it would be if it moved that far. The tooth doesn't look dark, at least not yet, but it's all swollen and hard to see much now.

I can tell she notices a difference too, because she's trying to hide her mouth and teeth from us, and keeps touching it.

I hope the swelling is gone down some tomorrow, and I can see it better, God bless her, she had such a fat lip tonight LOL

Karen, I can't even imagine how magical that must have been at Disney! What a great memory!

Kellie, Rae was the SAME thing, we got her one of those plastic playhouses that goes outside, she saw that set up, and that was it! She opened 2 presents, Amelia opened the rest for her LOL!

[newfiemountiewife]

Tracy, I think we all have that problem with toys LOL

[kscwgirl]

JJ was the SAME way. I think the kid maybe opened up 10 things all day.. and that was over 3 seperate houses. Once he opened something he wanted to play with, he wasn't opening anything else. LOL

I got a TomTom GPS from Jeff, and an incredible 100+ page (paper) scrapbook of our wedding from my mom.

The kids got TONS of stuff, some of it is still at my mom's. LOL I don't even know what all they got yet really, but tons of toys. No idea where I'm going to go with them all. LOL

Jamie, I hope Amelia feels better soon!!!!

[iJenny]

Well, I already shared my "wonderful gift story" (see previous thread), but here's a quick recap of our Christmas...
We spent x-mas eve at my aunts house playing games, eating dinner, and opening gifts. The boys had so much fun (they're the only kids in the family, so they get VERY spoiled). DH had to work 7pm-5am so he took off after presents and then my mom took the boys to our church's candlelight service while I got to stay there and play scrabble with my grandmother.
This morning the boys woke up and the four of us openend gifts and played with their toys for a while. Then I made breakfast and we sent daddy to bed (he had to work tonight too). Then they boys and I watched the parade and headed over to my mom's house for the day. Cameron spent most of the day playing with his new Nintendo DS (his old one broke) and Connor just ran around being a silly goose. DH stopped by on his way to work, then the boys and I came home, I put them to bed, and now I'm here!!
Its been a busy but wonderful Christmas for us!!
________
Live Sex (http://livesexwebshows.com/)

[Libby Pritchett]

She is 4 (will be 5 in less than a month), but was a late teether (14 months), so I expect she will be later losing them as well, which is why I am a little concerned. It's one of the front two (baby tooth), and this tooth is normally out a tad farther than the other, but now is much further in than the other. That's the best way I can explain it. It doesn't feel loose, which you would think it would be if it moved that far. The tooth doesn't look dark, at least not yet, but it's all swollen and hard to see much now.


Hmmmm... with it being a baby tooth, I would normally say not to worry too much about it just because it's not a big deal if she loses it early (it just means she'll be toothless a little longer than norm). But with it being so swollen and her being so uncomfortable, I'd definitely have your dentist take a look at it.

Poor kid! I wonder how many Christmas Day accidents the Wii is responsible for?

[Priscilla]

It was good. Last night Will was restless so we were still asleep when MIL got here....she woke us up. :lol:

DH got the coffee on while Will and I did the potty thing. Will also had to go in to get G'pa. He was still in the guest room (soon to be nursery).

When I got out we got breakfast in the oven (overnight stuffed french toast :thumbup: ) and got cups of coffee.

WIll and G'pa started handing out gifts and we took turn opening stuff until breakfast was ready (cooked for an hour). We weren't sure he was going to finish because he also wanted to play with everything but he was also excited to open each new package.

We got a wii, too......but opened ours about 3 weeks ago ;) .

Around noon DS got really grouchy and threw a fit off/on for 3 hours so that made all of us a little sour but MIL and I got lunch/dinner ready and he was finally kinda better.

I think he was tired from waking up before he was ready and from being hungry (he didn't want to eat).

We took him to look at lights on last time tonight before bed. :unsure:

[MandaBean]

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent lots of time with family and friends, and my sweet husband surprised me with lots of my favorite scent (Love Spell) from Victoria's Secret. It was a great..very eventful day. Hope everyone is having happy holidays!

[ColleenSwerb]

I love love LOVE to hear how everyone spends their holidays!

This was my very first christmas away from my family. Last year we did it with my family, but this year it was my fiancee's turn. Of course on christmas eve his dad told us we shouldn't have worried about evenly splitting the holidays since my family does so much together, lol. Oh well. It had to happen sometime. My mom cried a few times, but she had 23 good Christmas' with me, lol.

Anyway, we ran around a lot. Saturday and sunday we were in PA with his dad's parents. His Granny welcomed me into the family wtih an oven mitt, which provided endless entertainment for the weekend. We went to surf and turf for an early dinner sunday, then drove back home to western MD. Went and saw National Treasure 2 (LOVED it!). Monday was super relaxing. Just hanging out and then church and a small dinner at home. Everyone fell asleep in the living room at like 9, lol. Yesterday we woke up, did presents (is it sad that I'm excited for my new toaster oven?), then got ready and drove to Pittsburgh to be with his mom's side of the family. Spent some time there, stuffed ourselves on all the food, shared more presents, and then headed back to our house. We're definitely not excited about having to work this week, lol. Although, is it really work if I'm sitting here ready december's DAM? :p

[ZaCola3]

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent lots of time with family and friends, and my sweet husband surprised me with lots of my favorite scent (Love Spell) from Victoria's Secret. It was a great..very eventful day. Hope everyone is having happy holidays!


Ohhh I love Love Spell too Manda! I used to drench myself in the stuff...I have now learned the subltle art of "a little goes a long way"...LOL

Or day was wonderful as well.

We started at 7:20 when hubby had to wake us all up. Landen had had a very rough Xmas eve and slept very poorly. He was up like 4 times through the night which is so rare. I think he was over stimulated from all the sugar and fun at my mom's.

Landen also wanted to stop and play with each and every toy. The best was when he opened DVD's and wanted to stop everything and put them in and watch them THEN and there, if we would have catered to that whim we would have not ever left home. He got like 6 different movies...LOL.
His favorite gift BY far was the Diego Rescue Pack set that came with an injured baby jaguar and all sorts of vet equipment. He LOVES this toy! He was also thrilled with the HotWheels he got(his first ones).
I also cannot fail to mention that after the intial thrill of the "big" toys he seems to have latched onto the 88cent recorder we got him from Wally, this thing is annoying after about 2 hours of non stop tooting. Toot, Toot, Toot, and each toot gets louder than the last I think.
Zak had a blast opening his gifts, although he waited till Landen was almost all the way done since he only had about 4 gifts(Big boys are WAY more expensive). He LOVEDDDDD the Wii and the Showtime Boxing game we got them. He also was stoked about his new Ram's clothes and his KSwiss tennis shoes. I think I saw a look of pure MAN when he opened the shaving kit we got for his stocking, my little boy is not so little anymore. Wahhhh!
Connor spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning with his dad, so he wasn't home yet.
Scott, Zak, Landen and myself loaded up and went to my grandpa's for breakfast as is our Christmas Morning tradition. We always take breakfast out to him and my entire immediate family is there. It is a tradition that has been in place my entire life, and it is always something I look forward too. My grandpa enjoys it so much, he must get up at 4AM to get things arranged so we all fit in his house.
Zak caught a few zzzz's while we were there and Landen and Will(my nephew), ran around like chickens with thier heads chopped off, while the rest of us sat around and gabbed!
Then it was off to Scott's mom's house. My MIL has postponed our Christmas there because her mom is in the hospital. However Scott and I decided since we have more than one gift for them that we were going to take over one and let them open in on Christmas. My FIL has parkinson's disease and for the most part is bedridden, so he was so happy to have Landen crawling all over him. His face lights up with such joy whenever we are there. We were there till about noon when we decided it was time to go home and put Landen down for a nap(he was GROUCHY).
Scott, Landen and I laid down and napped till about 4:00 and then we all loaded up again to go to my mom's for Xmas supper.
Just my parents and my family. Sooo nice and laid back...perfection really, and by this time Connor was home and we got to watch him open up his gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Scott and Zak played Operation(Zak won!). We loaded up for the last time and headed home. Thank Goodness!
Connor opened his presents here, and was thrilled with his new game for the Wii, (BOOGIE!) and also loved his new Adidas tennis shoes. However I think hew was most thrilled with his new set of BOD stuff. That boy loves to smell good!
It was a wonderful Christmas filled with all the things that make my life so complete, Scott, my boys and my family.

[winkasheart]

I love reading about everyone's Christmas, this is a fun thread!We usually all go my Mom's house on Christmas eve and gave snacks, cheese and crackers, shrimp, that sort of thing, and just sit around and gab and laugh. Then we head home so Santa can come for all the little ones. Then everyone is back at my Mom's by noon on Christmas day to open presents from each other. We all live pretty close to each other, in the same city, and the ones that are out of town come in on the eve, so it is pretty easy and what we have always done.

And this year we had an addition to the family, my soon to be son in law, plus my daughter and he weren't here last year because they were in Iraq, so this was extra special for us all this year. They got me....a BAMBOO FUN tablet! I was so excited, lol. It is all hooked up and I even played a little with it last night, lol.

Everyone loved the albums I made them this year. I had printed pages and put them albums for everyone. Made my Mom get all teary eyed....so I was happy they all liked them.

It was a perfect day!

[FlirtatiousBrat]

well of course our most exciting part was opening the little envelope from the dr hehe...my kids had a blast and I enjoyed being off the puter and having some quality family time. I really love this time of year. I think next year though we're going the simple route. My kids got way toooooo MUCH stuff this year!

[Sue Setiadji]

Sounds like you all had a wonderful day (accidents aside - hope Amelia's mouth settles quickly - must be very uncomfortable for her to eat at the moment).
Our day was quite traditional but unusually, and appreciatively, missing the early morning wake up - I think the lead up to Christmas with the end of year festivities at school finally took its toll on my 2 dds - they slept til 8:30!
Maybe that was the real highlight!
Loved the collab effort on food at Dads - watching the girls and their cousins play games together so easily despite the age span - (7 girls from 8 to 17). Snapped lots of pics - smelt great (I think) due to DHs Jadore gift - loved chatting with my sisters and neices and watching Dad dress up in his cheep and nasty Santa suite! (No thongs rhis year - he actually classed it up a bit and put on some gum boots instead (blue but still a notch above thongs!)