Holiday Recap 2007

Happy New Year, everyone!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's ourselves this year.

This is the first year either A or K have "gotten" the whole present-opening thing. A has had zero interest in pulling paper off anything for the last four years; paper doesn't have wheels or bounce, you know. And Miss K ~ well, this time last year she was only 9 months old and was supremely interested in eating all those shiny bows, but that was about as far as it went. Part of the problem may have been that we didn't actually have anything to open here; we saved up enough gas money to drive to Florida to visit family instead. (Thanks to some friends, we were able to stop at a hotel halfway instead of driving the entire 991 miles at once). The kids had gifts from both sets of grandparents and cousins when we got there, though (hence K's fascination with bows).

I'd like to say I'm completely non-materialistic, but this is not true by a long shot. To be honest, it really bothered me that we couldn't do anything material for them last year. I couldn't even make them anything. I know there are a lot of crafty people out there, but I'm afraid I lack in certain areas. (I'm creative, yes; but I was also banned from Home Ec in 7th grade for breaking two sewing machines. I had to make my final project, an apron, by hand. Woodworking is also really not an option.) What do you make for a new 3-yr-old who was still completely non-verbal and focused only on the wheels of one particular truck rolling back and forth, and for his baby sister? I'm afraid my creativity hit a block, because after racking my brains I couldn't come up with a darned thing to do with the slim materials I had on hand.

Yes, I know the point of Christmas is not giving people things, it's not even "things"! Nevertheless, my Mommy heart was a little heavy on Christmas morning last year. But we did take them to see family who we get to see about every 18 months to two years or so, when we drive down there ~ and as young as the kids were, they really didn't care or understand the whole gift-giving process anyway. They had plenty of toys once we got there ~ we couldn't fit it all in the trunk with our luggage, and had to mail some of it home! (Thanks Uncle Rob, who gave us the ginormous MegaBloks Firetruck...)

This year, however, is a whole other ball of wax. We had an obscene amount of presents ~ seven each for A and K! This was combined from Mommy and Daddy, cousins, and both sets of grandparents of course, but our tree was stuffed underneath for the first time ever. Well, this was an obscene amount of "loot" for us, anyway. Observations on Wednesday morning when other families were piling boxes of rubbish by the curb suggests that perhaps what we consider extravagant, others would consider modest at best. But Z and I are pleased with our Christmas, and that's all that matters.

A was a bit overwhelmed, and had to take a couple of breaks and go upstairs for a while, then come back down to open another one. He did enjoy the process, though, and understood that there were toys inside.

K, on the other hand, breezed through all of them without stopping. She was shrieking with laughter because she could rip paper without getting into trouble, and there were things under the paper to play with! She did decide that simply unwrapping the presents wasn't enough, however, and that making holiday confetti seemed like a fantastic idea.

I'm still finding little bits of wrapping paper here and there, and we've vacuumed a couple of times since Christmas. I figure I'll find and throw away the last bits just in time for "Present Smackdown 2008".

Our New Year's was quiet in some parts, and raucous in others. New Year's Eve, Z and I pretty much passed out from exhaustion after 11 p.m. We crashed with the lights on and the TV still blaring. I guess that means we're getting old, or something! :) We roused up enough to turn everything off and give each other a drowsy smooch before fading back into oblivion. Just in time for one of Z's co-workers to call us, from Times Square in NY. This guy couldn't hear us, so he was screaming into his cell phone, "Happy New Year's! Hey, I can't hear you, so I'll call you later! Happy New Year's!" *click* Did you know that five minutes is all it takes to slide right back under into sleep when you're really tired? I know this for a fact, because that's when my brother called and I had already crashed again. We are blessed with good family and friends, I will say that.

At 12:30 in the morning, right after Z and I had re-crashed following my brother's call, our neighbors in the next building over had a drunken brawl in their front yard. We had not one, not two, not three, but four police vehicles in our little court. And it took an hour for everything to quiet down completely.

Happy New Year.

Blessedly, the rest of the night was uneventful, and Z and I had recovered enough by the next morning to enjoy the Rose Bowl parade and set out to brave some annoying cacophony of our own choosing: we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's. K had never been to one, and A has only been twice (once for a party, once just because with some friends). Thankfully, there weren't very many people there (which we were really hoping would be the case), and we only stayed for an hour and 15 minutes, but it was enough time to eat some pizza and play some games. A actually enjoyed the DinoDash and Fishing games! He totally got the concept and really played them. That was fun to see. Miss Thang was in hawg heaven. Music, lights, pizza, and things to climb on? She loved (almost) every minute of it. The only thing she didn't particularly enjoy was when Daddy took her over to meet Chuck, although I can't really blame her. I'd probably freak out a little too if I was confronted by a 6-ft tall rodent, let alone one that talked...

In short, Holiday Season '07 was a good ending, and a good beginning.