On Christmas Day in the Morning

"All the stockings you will find, hanging in a row. Mine will be the shortest one, you'll be sure to know."
Actually, mine ties with Andy for shortest--we both have Santa mittens. This year's contents? Gummy bears and a candy canes. Now the kids stockings were much better. This is the first year that our children woke up before us; every other year, Andy and I sit around trying to decide if we should wake them up yet. But this year, around 7:30, Abigail ran in to our room crying out, "Santa left la vache qui rit in my stocking." Have you seen "Laughing Cow" cheese in the grocery stores here? In France, it was a food staple for us. I don't buy it at all here, because it is the one thing that was actually cheaper in France than in the US. Abigail and Avery were thrilled, as was Warren with his astronaut ice cream. There were other funky, random objects inside, but I think these--and the lip gloss--were the biggest hits.

"I saw 3 [kids] come sailing in on Christmas day in the morning. And what was in those kids all 3?" Mainly sugar and chocolate. Especially for Avery, with her extreme love of "tandy." Truly, nutrition kind of falls by the wayside for a few days this time of year. Really--who can monitor what your 3 kids ate the last 4 nights when you've been eating at separate tables at family dinners? Or for breakfast, if you've been sleeping in later than them because you've been staying up way too late finishing gifts and then cleaning up the mess? Really, all those plates of cookies, fudge and cinnamon rolls from neighbors are very practical this time of year; they are just so accessible on the counter. I did make our usual Christmas breakfast this year--overnight syrupy french toast. Melted butter and brown sugar, layered with bread, saturated with french toast batter, topped off with walnuts and craisins. Apparently the kids didn't get that there was sugar in there--they didn't eat any of it. They did eat the gummy bears and candy canes in their stocking, though. So at least they were diversified in their choice of foods. Enough about our diet. On to the rest of Christmas morning. In true Avery fashion, she took her pajamas off, oblivious to the fact that we have concrete floors, which are freezing in the morning. Avery gave her dad Japanese Kit-Kats for Christmas, and it is hard to tell who is more pleased. Whilst in France, Andy discovered that outside of the US, Nestle has the rights to Kit-Kat candy bars, as opposed to Hershey's. Andy thinks they are so much better than the Hershey version. Well, World Market sells Japanese Kit-Kats, so Andy can still get his fix.

"Troll the ancient yuletide carols."
Abigail's big gift was her violin. Yes it is real. She loves it and demonstrates it for any willing--or unwilling--listener. Avery got a doll stroller, but I don't have any great pics of her with it.

"Outside the [rain] is falling and [sisters] are calling yoo-hoo. Come on it's lovely weather for a bike ride together with you."
Warren's big gift was his bike. We bought the bike at the police surplus because the price was next to nothing and we like the whole "reduce, re-use, recycle" idea. Plus, who wants to stress out about the first few chips in the paint? Why not get it with a few already in place? All we had to replace were the innertubes and tire lining. I went to Wal Mart on December 24th in the afternoon to buy some. I picked up a few other last minute items, but it wasn't until 10:15 pm that I realized I had left that bag at checkout. Oh yes--I felt every emotion you can imagine: guilt, fear, exhaustion, disbelief, denial, blame, failure...Anyway, my dad was able to round up two for us, one from Sam's bike and one from my Aunt Julie's and so Christmas was saved.
Warren loved his bike--as you can see from his face. It wasn't until later at my parents' home he said, "But my new bike isn't very new looking because I think they must have got it at a yard sale." I laughed. And the great thing is, he doesn't care; the statement was made simply, matter-of-factly, detached. He thinks the bike is great.

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." That sums up the gifts I made for my sisters in sister-in-law (not pictured). For several years I have had in my sewing/crafting stash an old bag full of quilted squares and strips of coordinating blue material. Before that it sat in my mother's stash for a least a decade and a half. And before that, it was my Grandmother's, an unfinished project when she died. I was just 8 or so, but I still have many happy memories of my Grandma Dee. A Christmas one: she used to always send new pajamas for us to open on Christmas Eve. My mom and I do the same now with our children. Anyway, this year I kind of experienced a crafting/sewing renaissance, and had the idea to use the material to make aprons for the Lewis women in my life. I underestimated the time it would take, and waited too long to do them, but still, I'm glad I did. Each pocket is a quilt block from my grandma. The blue fabric on my mom's is the largest contiguous piece of material from the bag. The squares at the bottom of the cream ones are mainly made from those blue strips, along with my red bed sheets, old blue overalls and my blue gingham shirt. The cream material is from a set of couch pillows I made and then set aside when I made new ones. The waistband on Sarah's is also the material from my grandmother. All that pieced together with some new fabric.
We spent the day going round in circles from our house, to the Lewis', the the Jennings' and then repeating. It was so fun. We love living close to our family. We were all exhausted at the end of the day. I slept in this morning until 10:40--bless Andy. BTW, my favorite gift was from Andy, He had all the blog entries I wrote from France made into a beautiful book. I know it must have taken hours to format it all; I dreaded doing it myself. I love it. Thanks Andy.