How was your Christmas? Did you have a nice day?

We had a wonderful day , it wasn't just the gifts...but how we spent the day together! The food was good, the company even better! The siblings even got along!!!!

How about you?

My day was better than expected. (Hate to sound like Scrooge but I had some trepidations.) Spent the morning and first part of the afternoon out at my brother's house with him, my father, and my sister-in-law. I think I've said before that I don't particularly like my sil but yesterday she was very well behaved (read 'sobor').

Anyway, after a nice time with them, I came back into town and dropped in on some friends; one of whom traditionally gets severly depressed over the holidays. We all had a fine time together and I know she appreciated the visit and company.

All in all, a nice quiet but fun Christmas.

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Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Our day started with me in the kitchen. But then, and much more importantly, we phoned Paul's dad (82) in Delaware and spoke with him. Then I called my mother and father in Vermont. They were at one of my sisters for dinner with her family. My mother, (who is 86 and in final stages of Merkel Cell Carcinoma, a very rare skin cancer), my father (who is 88) now resides in a nursing home as he has had so many heart attacks and strokes he has great difficulty with balance and walking. Both of them seemed to be in great spirits and were enjoying a glass of wine I had sent to them that is made at Chateau Elan, here in Ga. Speaking with them both was the BEST gift of all.
Then noonish, my two sons, daughters-in-law and my 2 grandkids all arrived. Let the fun begin!!!!
We ate our dinner first. Then we went into the living room to do our gifts. We have this traditional thing where everyone sits in their traditional "spot", the kids deliver the gifts, then we start with the youngest opening a gift, then next youngest and so on, until the oldest (now, that would be me), and this goes on until all gifts are opened. It takes a bit longer, but we get lots of laughs and sometimes the one who is not paying attention misses their turn. HAHA. Then when all the gifts are opened and the room sort of cleared of wrapping paper and stuff, we go back to dining room for dessert.
My second "BEST" gift was a round/trip ticket to Aruba for my Feb. 19-26 trip, this gift, of course, was from my wonderful, loving, generous husband.
To finish off our day, we had a nice glass of wine together. A bit later I put my flannels on and hopped into bed, Paul was already asleep by then.
Hope you all had as great a day as we did. PG

You may call it Christmas, I call it "Giftmas." Not because that's my personal wishes for the day, but because Lar's family goes so overboard with gifts, well, it's just too much. I was sitting at the living room couch and I could barely see over my pile of gifts. Really, not joking folks. The room was packed with gifts, and it's not a small room either. I remarked at the end of the day that I had been "gifted to death."

We arrived at about 1:15 and promptly had some appetizer's. At about 2:15 began the Giftathon, whereby one person at a time opened a present (this is their "tradition.") Now, there was me, Lar, his mom, his dad, his sister, his brother-in-law, their two kids (one is a baby, the other is 5), and his grandmother who they call "Mommo." Well, one present opened at a time with this many people was just insane. This lasted for about an hour and a half until someone had the sense to say, "Let's do two at a time."

So the gifting continued...Lar's BIL started dinner and so he was out of the gifting circle for awhile. You'd think it would have sped up. Nope. We passed on presents until about 6:00 when we had a 45 min. break to eat dinner. Then, back to presents. Lar's BIL sat down for several rounds of gift making up, and his mom left for an hour to let out her dogs (of course when she returned she had to open like 10 gifts to get caught up). The gifts continued two at a time until about 9:00. Yes folks, 9.

Afterwards, we sat for desserts and some Christmas word games, which I wasn't up for since I had the life sucked out of me all day long. Apparently some years back they tried to get it narrowed down to one gift per person but Lar's dad wouldn't budge.

Could you imagine if we had gone on one person at a time?? I'd still be there. We left at 10:15-ish.

Christmas at my parents house? Well, earlier on in the week my parents sent us a check for $700 to get a new dishwasher. WHOO HOO! When we went to their house on Christmas Eve, we weren't expecting anything else. We received two gift cards (Home Depot $125 and Lowe's $100) and I was given a really nice sweater and we were given a set of stainless steel cooking utensils. Total time to swap presents: 20 minutes. Then we went out to dinner at a nice place (Liz may know it...Clark's Landing).

I'm spending the day recovering today. How 'bout you all?

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Amie
Stylish Crochet Patterns
See me on this t.v. show!
"I'm not an actress. I just play one on t.v."

To Amie,
I had warned my 2 sons wives wayyyyyyyyy ahead of Christmas that there would be, "no going overboard on gifts this year". I told them it was time to "cut back".
Even though we do our "traditional opening thing", it probably only took maybe 2 hours tops. They all (6) arrived noonish and all had left by 5:00ish. They all had to go to their other family functions. Yours did last a longggggggg time!!!!!!
Maybe next year you and your husband could plan to be in Aruba for Dec. 25th and avoid all that.
P.S. I love your word "giftathon".!!!!!!

Gosh amie, that is a lot of "gifting"!

First Friday night, I made a turkey with all the trimmings for me, my husband, Jamie and her boyfriend. We all opened one gift and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. My husband blessed me with a beautiful diamond pendant made by our friend at Harry Winstons.

Christmas Eve was at my sister's. I was in a sweat over my husband and brother in law getting along. They have been in a terrible feud since July. I am happy to report they shook hands and got along fine all evening! My mother was brought out of the nursing home for 3 hours. She enjoyed the good food and seeing everyone. The evening ended early, my cousins have young children. Steve and I lit a fire at home and enjoyed some Baileys.

Christmas Day the three of us exchanged all morning, with a mini-giftathon. My husband must have won in his football bets or something because he was extra generous this year - Jamie got a digital camera, an IPod holder, perfumes, clothes, etc. I received another wonderful gift - a beautiful, very expensive handbag, cell phone holder, books, a Coach wallet (!) and other stuff. Jamie gave me PJs and a 14 piece Martini set. Does she think I like to drink or something?

Then over to Steve's brothers for more nice gifts! I got a stainless steel bar set from my niece. There seems to be a theme here.................
We had a nice dinner and ran home where I had a couple of friends over for dessert and coffee.

Today I was at the mall, where I got all my paper, tags and cards for next year at Bloomies, half off. Plus another great handbag with money Steve tucked into my other bag.
(note to self: be extra nice to hubby this year).

Now I am very tired....................and the cats want to play..............

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This probably should go under "what did you do Christmas Eve" but I will put it here.
As I mentioned on this BB last week, if Paul got out of work early he would do his "Santa Thing". Well, he did get out early, was home by 3:30, and we decided to have a drink to celebrate just that. Next he showered, put on his lounging pants and shirt and came out and we chatted and watched a bit of tv, then when it started getting dark he said, "well, time for Santa to get ready". Now you have to understand, Paul is basically a very shy kinda guy, so this Santa thing he does just makes me laugh, (or was it the drink I had), well anyway, I have to help him put his Santa boots on, tie his shoes and we spend at least 10 minutes getting the pillow in the right position before we tie it onto him. Then he puts on the beard/mustache and then the white full wig and finally the hat and belt and glasses. I must admit, he makes a great Santa. He took his sack of goodies and off he went, with me holding the umbrella as it started to rain. He does the homes with little kids first. I stay where I can't be seen but where I can see the kids faces. Well, their little faces light up like Christmas trees, huge eyes and ear to ear grins. They range in ages 2 years to 7 years. He has them sit on his lap to tell him what they want him to bring later that night. And here is where I have to say, I am not sure who is enjoying this Santa visit most, the kids or the parents? So many happy faces. After he does all the kids he goes to all the elderly widows homes, there are 4 of them. They love his visit. They all want to sit on his knee and chat with him.!!!!! They all laugh and giggle the entire time he is in their homes. I think only one knew who this really was. This whole fiasco took about 3 hours, it did stop raining, but I stayed in the background anyways as I love to see the smiling faces when they all open their doors and find Santa. It is a kick!!!!!!!

Our Christmas was very nice, but I am glad it's over...time to think about our 3 week Aruba trip the end of February.

I managed to visit my Mom (remember the other thread?) a few days before Christmas...planned on staying 2 hours, left in 20 minutes. I also saw lots of my siblings on and off.....some happy times, some tense moments.

Had my Son and Grandson here along with my very understanding, generous husband, who I wouldn't know what to do with myself, without.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all, and A Very HAPPY, healthy, New Year to all.

Chris

I tend to call it obnoxious. To me, it's almost insulting to those who are very less fortunate. I just assume not spend the money and make a donation to a charitable cause.

BTW: It was a year ago that the tsunami in Indonesia struck. I wonder if there will be any coverage of the "then and now."

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Amie
Stylish Crochet Patterns
See me on this t.v. show!
"I'm not an actress. I just play one on t.v."

Chris, this was the mother and siblings that wouldn't speak to you. Well, you at least went and did what you thought was right. YOU ARE THE BETTER PERSON FOR IT. GOOD FOR YOU!

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Amie
Stylish Crochet Patterns
See me on this t.v. show!
"I'm not an actress. I just play one on t.v."

Thanks. That's what it felt like. I just hope my parents don't mope next year and decide to do Christmas so I don't have to experience that stuff again. Either that, or it has to be cut down to one gift per adult.

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Amie
Stylish Crochet Patterns
See me on this t.v. show!
"I'm not an actress. I just play one on t.v."

It was nice to have the Boys all in the same room at one time. Santa was good to all - and the food was plenty. If my Father was their it would have been perfect, but he was their in Spirit. I played videos of when the boys were small, and shed some tears and had some laughts.

All the work and preparation - and it is over in a flash. Ah...Such is Life.

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I lead with my Heart and my Body follows

Dan & Sweet Georgene

Chris, amie is right! You were the better person to go! You can feel good knowing you did the right thing.

I had to tell my husband the same thing on Christmas Eve - to go to my sister's and brother in law's house and not boycott! He was the better person to go! And in my case I lucked out because my bil must have realized what an *** he was in July, extended his hand to Steve. They never discussed the problem, but got along well the rest of the night. That might never happen in your case, but you still are the person with class.

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Thank you both. It was really difficult and I had to fight with myself to put it out of my mind and not let it ruin Christmas with my hubby, son, and grandson.....I think I did an OK job....

I'm glad it's over, and really looking ahead to 2006....both for our business and for our trips we have planned together.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for the great BB.

xoxo

Wow, my Christmas day can't hold a candle to all of yours. We (me, Ted and Dad) got together in the afternoon, opened gifts, ate dinner and Dad left about 6:30. That left an evening of relaxation for us (post-Christmas day let down).

Found out yesterday, that in addition to the office being closed this Friday, they are also closing the office on Monday

Happy New Year to everyonearty: arty: arty:

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It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere

This is not a bad thing Jackie! Sounds good to me!

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Nothing wrong with post-Christmas relaxation. We, too, will be closed both Friday and Monday. I think I'm getting to like this business of Christmas and New Years falling on Sunday!

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Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.