The other part of Christmas

So along with all the drama at work about boilers and steam pipes (and large funerals and budget discussions and other sundry things I didn't mention), I hosted Christmas here this year. Which I was very happy to do. With my work schedule it's easier in some ways not to have to travel, and I have a great house for everyone to gather in. But that also meant that the pressure was on to get the shopping, decorating, cleaning and so on done in a timely manner. I'm awful about being last minute...some of it is intentional--I just refuse to start Christmas as early as many do, some of it is my personality which seems to prefer last minute pressure, and some of it is work--long days mean when I come home I just want to veg out.

This year, Amazon was my friend, and almost all my shopping was done on line in one fell swoop, which was great in many ways. But all those boxes piled up in the back room, demanding to be sorted and wrapped--sort of like they were glaring at me every time I came in the door. I bought the tree in plenty of time--really it was the easiest tree-buying ever: I went to Whole Foods where they had gorgeous Fraser firs and bought the first one I saw and the guys stuffed it into my car. It was the heaviest tree I can remember and it is beautifully fat and full, and just brushes the ceiling. And it took me three nights to decorate.

WW, Mr. WW, and Baby M arrived first, on the day before Christmas Eve, and the Kid came in from the city that night. I managed to have all their presents wrapped and under the tree before they got here, and all the grocery shopping done, and the house was clean because the domestic goddess also came that day. That was also the day that the second boiler went, so I was feeling pretty stressed. On the up side, it meant I could forget about sermon writing, so I spent all of Christmas Eve afternoon wrapping the rest of the gifts. For the first time in at least 30 years I did not have to stay up until the wee hours surreptitiously wrapping while everyone else slept. Amazing.

After the early service at the neighboring church, we all came home and had dinner and then I went back to church, and WW and the Kid started baking...and were still baking when I came home: apple pie, chocolate tart, and a pie crust for me to use the next day,  and sweet potato biscuits for Christmas dinner. So even though I didn't have to wrap presents, I stayed up late with them and helped them clean up.

Christmas morning I got ready for church while Baby M had some breakfast and then he started opening presents. Only he is very very slow and deliberate so he actually only opened two before I left. Which was okay because NSLS, Mr. LS, and Little J were coming in that afternoon after being with Mr. LS's family for a few days. When I got home from church M was napping and I started in prepping Christmas dinner: Baked ham, pineapple and cheese, green beans, kale chips (which Mr. LS made when he arrived) and my contribution to dessert: pecan pie. What I really wanted was a nap, but that was not in the cards.

NSLS and her family arrived around 3, and full on present-opening commenced. J is old enough to really enjoy it now, and is sweetly thrilled by everything. M got into it, too, after he got warmed up. And it was a great Christmas evening.

Everyone stayed until Tuesday, and it's a good thing that was the plan because Sunday afternoon we were hit with the Great Christmas Blizzard of '10. The wind fairly howled, and we felt every draft in this old house, but we also had a roaring fire and we spent our time playing with Christmas toys (at one point we had a great sing along session with M's rhythm instruments) and, after the kids went to bed, board games. J and I ventured out into the snow once, but it was just too windy and cold to stay out.

It really was a lovely Christmas, and I loved having everyone here for a few days. The house is way too quiet when everyone leaves. So Tuesday afternoon, the Kid and I decided to go to see Harry Potter 7.1 ~ we've had a long standing tradition to see those movies for his birthday since that is usually when they come out, but we hadn't managed to see this one yet.  Annoyingly, the projection system wasn't working very well, but the bonus was they gave us all free passes to compensate for the less than perfect picture (really it was fine after they got it into focus, just a bit smaller than usual on the screen but they spent 10+ minutes trying to fix it). I won't say no to free movie tickets, so the next day we went back and saw The King's Speech, which is really excellent--go see it! Colin Firth was really really good as George VI.

The Kid left yesterday to visit his high school friends, and I went back to work--sort of because it was, until late yesterday, still quite cold everywhere except the main office. One boiler is up and running and hopefully Sunday we'll be back to "normal"--whatever that is!

And that's Christmas 2010.