Christmas 2011

Because we went to Mexico last year just two weeks before Christmas, we were working on a very tight timeline for buying and wrapping Christmas presents, and getting things ready for the holidays. We had everything ready before we left for our trip, so when we got back we were able to just relax and enjoy Christmas. This year we did not have anything urging us to take care of business early and therefore we completely procrastinated. I am used to working under pressure (because I am a classic procrastinator) and this would not have been that big of a deal had I not accidentally thrown a huge wrench in our last minute plans.

The Monday before Christmas, I picked Elise up from school and we went shopping for some last minute gifts. On the way out of the store, I was talking to her not paying any attention to what I was doing and rolled my ankle off the curb in the parking lot. It was excruciating and I could barely limp to the car. Then it took every amount of inner strength I had to be able to use my injured foot (my right foot of course!) to drive home. (Elise said "Mom you're really brave. I would have cried") It was fairly disastrous, especially considering that I had lots of plans to get lots of things done that week - things that I certainly needed to have use of my ankle to do. Not a convenient time for an ankle sprain!

Nonetheless, I managed to get most things done in between doctors appointments and we all had a pretty fabulous Christmas. On Tuesday, Elise, Marty and I went to see Luke's class perform Christmas songs (his class sang Rudolph, Frosty and We Wish you a Merry Christmas). He was so cute and SO excited that we were in the audience (he was fairly distracted that we were there - he kept waving at us excitedly and calling our names in between a few moments of singing). I had a whole slew of pictures that we took during the recital but Lu subsequently (and hopefully accidentally) deleted them off of my camera so we'll just have to remember how cute he was without the assistance of photos. On Wednesday I volunteered in Elise's Kindergarten class to help the make gingerbread houses. They turned out really cute and Elise was really, really excited to have me in her classroom for the day so it was totally worth hobbling around for two hours.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Stauffer family and continued our many wonderful family traditions. The kids had a blast decorating the tree and after an awesome meal the kids opened stocking gifts, which really ramped up the excitement and anticipation for Christmas morning. Cousin Abby came home with us Christmas Eve to spend the night and spend Christmas morning with us, which added too all of the fun and excitement of the day. It was also super exciting to have Aunt Amy with us this year!

Christmas morning Abby and Lucas woke around 7 and waited (somewhat) patiently for Elise to also wake up. By 7:30 they were out of patience and were stomping around so much they "accidentally" woke Elise. Gift opening was great - the kids react completely differently to presents. Lucas opens something and then lifts it in the air and screams, while Elise shyly smiles and hides her face behind the gift, especially if it's something she really wanted. It was so much fun for us as parents to watch them, and the was sort of a perfect year with both kids now completely understanding and being really, really enthusiastic and excited.

Gram, Grandpa, Uncle Tom and Uncle Kevin all joined us around 9am for cinnamon buns and more gift opening before we headed down to the Meredith Family celebration that afternoon and evening. There were several families who weren't there this year, including three families who have children, so it was much more low-key than usual but we all had a fabulous time. By the time we left that night, we were all pretty exhausted. It was such a great day day.

Christmas 2011 was a big success.