It’s 10:00 pm and we have only 2 hours of Christmas left. It’s been nice. Yesterday, the day of the big celebration, I spent much of the day cooking – as well as washing dishes and cleaning up the house. We had a great Cristmas Eve dinner, with our wonderful friends, and then hang out in front of the remains of the fire, admiring the Xmas tree for one last time.
This morning Mika woke me up with a kiss (as we’ve taught her to wake us). We’d told her she couldn’t open her presents until we were awake, but that she could go through her Xmas stocking. Unfortunately she opened mine instead – she wasn’t as thrilled by the soaps Mike had bought me, as by the little toys and candy I’d left in hers. She was very excited, however, because she’d heard Rudolph’s hooves on the roof. In reality, it was just Kathy going to the bathroom, but of course the fantasy is so much better.
She was super excited by her first present – the one she had asked Santa for – a (My Little) Pony on a walker. Yes, the mere concept is ridiculous (don’t horses start walking as soon as they are born?), but it was soooooooooo cute. She’s been hanging out with her pony ever since, though I haven’t really seen her playing with the walker.
She opened more presents, being happy about some and extremely sulky about other ones. Yes, she’s only a 4 1/2 year old, but it did get frustrating. Kathy had a talk with her and she was better after that. Kathy is very good at talking with Mika in a way she accepts and understands.
Camila was very excited about opening presents and happy with everything she got – but she liked that so much that she’d insist on opening all the presents out of turn. Keeping her away from the tree proved frustrating as well.
But in all – and despite the fact that there were simply too many presents (grandparents really went overboard) – we really enjoyed our morning. In the midst of it Mike and I cooked breakfast – pancakes, french toast, bacon and sausages.
I got some terrific presents. In addition to the food ones, I got pajamas from my sister, a comforter and scarves from my other sister, portraits, a scarf and a book from Lola, a flashlight from Lotty and a bunch of presents from my mother. I’ll have to look at the list to remember them all šŸ™‚
We spent the day mostly hanging out in our new pajamas. Mike and Camila took a long nap, Kathy and Mika played and baked some cake in her new EZ-bake oven, and I hang out on my computer and didn’t do anything much – just like one should on Xmas. Later on we went to dinner at the Oriental Teahouse, then to look at Xmas lights. Mike and I tried to put Camila to sleep (it took quite a while) and then they watched Lord of the Rings while I blogged some.
Oh, I did do some cleaning, but not too much – tomorrow will be cleaning day. With the girls, as they are on Xmas break.
My only regret is that I didn’t get to talk to Gladys, we called her and she wasn’t there. We’ll have to try again tomorrow.
Merry Xmas everyone!