Thursday night we had my mom and crew over - Grammy and Grandpa Gedy, my mom's sister Doris, Gedy's kids Ben and Shanna and her beau Paul; and of course the Grunewalds, my sister Kelley and hubby Kelly and daughters Riley and Reagan. Good house full and we had Feliz Navidad, a Mexican-themed Christmas with homemade enchiladas, tamales, tortilla soup, homemade charra beans, Spanish rice, muchos margaritas and Dos Equis, and a great time had by all. Great to see Gedy after his excitement a couple of weeks ago (a heart attack!). We exchanged gifts and played Balderdash and laughed at everyone's extremely strong BS abilities. Kole was so worn silly by the end of the night that he was practically begging to go to bed. Normally if you ask him if he's sleepy, or inform him that it's time for bed, he'll respond by finding a burst of energy and running a couple of laps around the house; maybe doing an Olympic pommel horse routine on the coffee table. On this night, after being obviously punch-drunk and crying over something insignificant, Kathy took him in and said "Are you ready for bed?", to which he responded with wide eyes: "Bed! Bed! Bed!" Poor guy.
Friday was Christmas Eve and again our house was the home base, this time for Kathy's family - her brother Duane, sister Dawnell and her husband John, and mother Joan. We ordered pizza in, exchanged gifts and again played Balderdash. Kole got one of his marquee Christmas gifts from Grandma on this night. Hard to rank one gift over another, but this one definitely takes up some real estate in the house, requiring about a total of 50 feet to completely enjoy. It's a "roller coaster" which is about four connected plastic ramp-looking things, none of which are more than a foot off the ground, but have just enough of an up-and-down to make a cool ride, then right now it empties into our kitchen where his ride extends all the way into our oven. The crew was gone before 10:30, so I was able to at least begin my Christmas Eve tradition of watching It's a Wonderful Life. I wasn't able to get all the way through, but I at least kept the streak in tact. It's at least 20-plus years.
With the kids so young, we didn't go through the entire Santa routine. We'll probably be due to begin next year, but for now we passed up the ritual of setting out cookies, etc. On Christmas morning the kids allowed us to blissfully sleep in. I don't think we rolled out of bed until at least 8:30. For Kole it looked and smelled like any other morning, so we got some breakfast in him and Karissa before we attacked the tree and did the gifts. Among the items Kole got were the one toy item that he will have passed down from his old man. I actually still have my old wooden blocks I used to play with - building things up, then taking some sort of truck or car to ram through them and destroy the building. He now has the blocks, but I don't think he knows it still. He knows the word "presents" and gets the gist of unwrapping any box he's pointed towards. He had a great haul, as did Karissa, who mostly got clothes she sorely needs. She's growing too quick. It's hard to be the one to see her every day and notice how quickly she grows. But, one day I wake up and we've switched from size 1 to size 2 diapers, and I'm readjusting the belts on her car seat to run higher over her shoulders. Over the past week Karissa has easily been more photographed than Lindsay Lohan out on a clubbing bender. She smiles and coos and is irresistible to love on. She's been kissed more over the last week than a new bride at a Catholic wedding reception.
I upgraded Kathy and got her in the modern age of technology with an Amazon Kindle reading pad and her Samsung flip-phone with a rotary dial in it is being upgraded to a Blackberry Torch. Kathy upgraded my wardrobe, which has been needed for a long time, as I'm a terrible shopper, which makes me a lousy dresser.
We ate and drank like we were on vacation and my debit card has actual bloody lacerations on it from being swiped so much. But, we survived. It was a great Christmas with quality time spent with all of our family - even a surprised visit from my cousin Jason, in from Africa where he's a pediatrician at a women and children's hospital in the country of Mali. Good times around lots of good family, and it's another Christmas that will go down with very, very fond memories.
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