4 Christmases

Seen the movie? I lived it this year. Albeit without *most* of the crude humor. Also, I don't have Tim McGraw as my brother in law. Darn.

I wasn't TRYING to get out of Christmas with our families, but I almost got lucky. Kidding! :) A friend went into labor on Christmas Eve morning, and I spent almost 18 hours away from home at the wonderful birth. Cutting it awfully close, my head hit the pillow at 4:46 am Christmas morning.

Rory and Liberty were up at 6:30.

Christmas #1 lasted about 6 minutes. "Santa" did not manage to get any of the presents wrapped, so there weren't actually any opening festivities to be had... there were just toys and stockings strewn about the living room for them to discover. Rory's scooter was a huge hit (she only rolled over toes a dozen times or so) and Liberty was fit to be tied that she got her very own baby doll stroller. I was barely functional so there are no pictures of this event, just some film footage thanks to my hubby, the man whose videographer skills give you motion sickness and vertigo. Chris made out like a bandit with his hand held HAM radio (ask me to tell you the story sometime of how this was the 2nd time he received the same present... and I mean EXACT SAME present) and I am looking forward to trying out all the beverages/beverage holders I received.

After Christmas #1, I stumbled around the house, talking to myself, trying to remember where we were going next, how long we were staying, and what we needed to take with us. Thankfully I remembered that I had had some time on my hands during the birth the day(s) before, so I carried around a tattered to-do list and we finally made it out the door around 8:15. Chris made great time, I sort of napped, and the girls stayed cheery for our arrival at Christmas #2, at the Carson grandparent's house.

Highlights from Christmas #2:
Rory: "Yay! More baby dolls!"
Liberty: "Foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood"
Lindsey: "Is it naptime yet?"
Chris: "Didn't I get this shirt last year?"

The girls got spoiled in a major way by Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Josh. We barely could fit all the boxes in the car to get to Christmas #3.

It started snowing on the way to Christmas #3. My siblings called in a panic because they had run out of beer and were afraid of getting snowed in at our mom's house without drinks. They subsequently ran to the gas station at which time they discovered that you can't buy beer on Christmas day in GA. I assured them I had plenty of wine to go around, and by the way, was it going to be naptime when I got there?

A miracle took place at Christmas #3. My mom managed to pull off a complete Christmas dinner with all the fixin's, despite the fact that her oven was broken. Did you know that you can make green bean casserole in the microwave? Given that my mom's definition of a good dinner usually consists of 2 or 3 types of chips with multiple dips, this feast was quite an accomplishment. I hated to do it, but I begged them please, could we wait to dig in for an hour? FortheloveofPeteIneedanap!

Nap was had, and oh dear sweet Pete it was good.

Then we re-microwaved the feast and ate 'til our bellies could hold no more nuked ham and yams. Gifts, round 3, was hilarious. Rory wanted to be play Santa, but most of the gifts were breakable so we were all diving off couches and over ottomans to grab stuff being thrown in our general direction. Mom's husband Bruce caught a frozen steak with his, ahem, "lap." We all waited in high anticipation of the BIG GIFT being revealed... a ZhuZhu pet raccoon from my mom to Rory.

Too bad Rory FREAKED when it came out of the box. I couldn't help but laugh, even now, as she screeched "I don't want it!!!!!!!!!!" and went scrambling onto Chris's lap. She clung to his neck for at least 15 minutes after it was safely hidden again. Liberty of course thought it was the coolest thing ever and spent the rest of the afternoon terrorizing Rory with the box. After that got old, they snuggled down into their new "sleeping bag buds" and watched The Ugly Dachshund" for the 2nd time that day.

Christmas #3 was "over" by 6 pm, and once the girls were tucked into bed promptly at 8, I stumbled my way into a bunk bed and slept like a rock for 12 hours. I woke up in exactly the same position I fell asleep in, if that tells you anything.

We leisurely got up and going to head home for Christmas #4. It was such a pretty drive home - the upper half of GA got its first white Christmas since 1884! Our neighborhood was frosted with fresh powder that the girls thankfully wanted nothing to do with. I'll admit it: I HATE playing in the snow. Snow is for being pretty, not for playing in. :) It appears the two of them got my anti-snow gene.

Christmas #4 took place between Cracker Barrel and our house with Grampa Steve, his girlfriend Kristi, and my sister, Aunt Lauren. My dad has a short attention span for small children, so after dinner and an hour of opening presents/appreciating said presents he was ready to be on his way. He also spoiled the girls mightily, and while opening her present was not as exciting as ZhuZhuGate 2010, Liberty will be enjoying the new car seat for years to come.

We were all exhausted after such a wonderful weekend. Last night, I sat on the couch, snuggled under a gorgeous quilt gifted to me by a friend and fellow craft swapper, sipping a tasty beverage out of a new beverage holder, and thought to myself:

"This really was the best Christmas... in a long time. Kinda hard to top the year I got my American Girl doll."

All joking aside, I was reminded this Christmas of how magical and memorable these times are when you are a kid. Some friends and I were talking last week about how Christmas is so cool when you are a kid, then it gets boring for a few years through teenagerhood and the single/newly married years, but now that we have kids to show us the magic again, it's so worth all the hassle and stress.

And though our American culture has managed to almost entirely remove the reason from the season, it really IS about Jesus. We're working on how to make that even more of a focus as a family next year. In the meantime, we will try to treat every day like Christmas... oh wait, no, sorry. That's Buddy the Elf's job.

And since I've avoided un-decorating and cleaning long enough... I should go. Must keep attacking the piles of post-Christmas cheer... but please! Give me a reason to take a break here and there by telling me stories of your magical holiday!