the aftermath...

the gifts are opened, all the Xmas stuff back in the garage, Koren went back home..Kate outgrew dolls somewhere between excitedly helping me fill out the paperwork on her MY TWINN doll & opening it on Xmas eve...but KJ has logged lots of hours on his new games...
we're onto the next holiday....NEW YEARS EVE!
Kate & I went shopping today for junk food & party accessories...have blowouts, hats, tiaras, noisemakers, & beads. She made decorations & put them up, I helped her finish cleaning her room...the Bratz posters all went, the Barbies, My Scenes, & Bratz dolls..(to the garage with the Xmas stuff...)
browsed the latest Current catalog & ordered Kate's classroom valentines. I'll be Xmas shopping again before long...(sigh)

christmas

I slept in, did some more housecleaning, went into work for a few hours, then came home. Kevin had the ham & turkey going (Koren doesn't like ham). Bernard & Janet Axsom, Spickard; John Axsom, Spickard; & Koren Dailey & Cody Wills, St Joe were supper guests of Kevin, Deb, KJ, & Katie Dailey.

christmas eve

Kevin took me to work on the drifty roads of snow, where the Wade 3 crew was greeted with a broken waterline & tons of ice & icicles...he called on his way to pick me up, Koren & Cody were here! she brought a big bag of homemade cookies.
we opened presents...Kate decided that next year she doesn't need any presents, that they just use up all the natural resources making those green dollar bills that I spend on gifts....(they're learning about natural resources & the environment in Social Studies...she is very worried about the state of the world)
Kevin got 2 1/2 Men season 1 dvd, Chiefs jersey, the John Wayne Shepherd of the Hills dvd.
Deb got an awesome Pepsi sweatshirt.
Koren got a personalized picture frame, the new Rhett Butler book, a Happy Bunny hoody, the bubblebath Katie made in art class, & $. (Cody gave her a pearl necklace.)
Cody got Superbad dvd & $.
KJ Guitar Hero3, Bengals jersey, the new wrestling game, new NCAA Football game
Katie My Twinn doll & outfits, digimakeover, superstar game,
Miss Cuddles: tons of cat toys.
Koren gave us a huge Hickory Farms assortment.
Kevin, KJ, Katie, & I went to Trenton to visit Grandma Grace & gave her a large framed group portrait & a little photo album of proofs from the photo shoot. She told us she had went to the Sunnyview xmas party with Kay & Robin & had went on a ride to see christmas lights, but no one had more lights than Sunnyview.
came home, made supper, made pumpkin pie, discovered that not only do I not have real potatoes to make Koren's mashed potatoes at our Christmas supper tomorrow nite, I don't have green beans for my beloved green bean casserole. forgot to buy the cresent rolls, too....pretty amazing for a woman who has had her gifts bought & tree & decorations up since BEFORE Thanksgiving...I wonder about me sometimes....

Christmas in Mercer

the gas station on the Mercer square plays Christmas music over a loud speaker. Santa always comes to town, but Katie didn't go see him this year. (She knows who Mercer's Santa is...)
They used to place a live tree on the bandstand & light it up, but not this year. The businesses have lights & decorations. A lot of homes have beautiful light displays. The school has a big tree in the commons picture window, with kid sized snowman & a little girl. The churches of course have pagaents, but we fell out of the habit of going to church so haven't participated the last couple of years. And of course the school has a Christmas program & Christmas party...a group of high school kids carols around town.

school xmas party

for the last several years I have volunteered in the craft room, dropping beads, wincing as I burn myself with the hot glue gun, tying knots that keep coming undone. Katie has always rode to school with me, this year she jumped on the bus. She worries about being late to school, she worries that I stop for a pepsi on the way because she'll be late, she worries that I spend too long parking & she'll be late...
she made a brief appearance in the craft room & made reindeer ducky & snowman jingle bell ornaments, then she was gone...

it's almost Christmas~

I've decorated & shopped & blogged, & today I realized that Christmas is NEXT WEEK!
tonight was the rescheduled Christmas program @ school--the program is one of the holiday highlights for me...but I seem to always block the painful memories of how difficult it is to get Katie ready to go...
I just knew she'd wear that expensive Candy's dress we bought her--(well, $45 isn't really expensive, I don't guess, but it's the most I've ever spent on a dress for her!) but she loved it. she wears it at home to play. has she ever worn it out in public? not even with all the accessories I got to go with it! she wanted to wear pants, but she doesn't have any dress up pants & I don't want to see her up on the stage in jeans when she has such amazing dress up clothes. she finally (after much badgering) consented to wear something---and she looked beautiful in the long blue velvet dress. we get to school---only one of her friends has on a long dress. she gives me the look.
made it to Princeton to Dollar General with 14 minutes to spare after Xmas program...she had bought her teacher a big tin of popcorn for Xmas---then she decided the popcorn looked good & ate it--I was going to go to Trenton over the weekend, but we had the snow & I just stayed home...thinking maybe she could bake some xmas cookies & we could curl up ribbons to put on the plate & fancy it up---and the girl who always wants to bake wasn't interested. so she found a recording key chain. ( I learned a lesson, she got one for her, one for Mr Eldridge!) so, all is well, & we have a teacher gift for tomorrows school party. I took the day off to work in the craft room, then we have a family afternoon planned with "Alvin & the Chipmunks" & the new Pizza Hut pizza.

a white christmas

yeah, snow is pretty, whatever. I have to drive to work thru it & put on boots just to go feed the dogs, & keep track of mountains of gloves & scarfs & coats & boots...mop up puddles of melted snow...
I like the Corona commercial with the little shack & the palm tree with xmas lights.
watched last seasons American Dad xmas episode on dvd tonite, they were playing the new one on tv, but had 2 things recording on LR dvr & kj switched to a football commentary show in his room, so I missed the new one.
I also love the new Mac/PC commercial, where they look like Claymation & have Santa in between them, singing...it cracks me up.
I am glad my shopping is done, the weather here lately has sucked when you have to drive 30+ miles to shop...(thank goodness for my computer!)
kids school xmas program was rescheduled to tuesday nite, which is cool, because that's kevin's nite off & now he gets to go, too!

the food

my mom made homemade peanut brittle & home made chocolate & peanut butter fudge & homemade bread & caramel sticky rolls. I don't have any special xmas dishes that I'm known for. I will always buy bags of Xmas M&Ms or xmas Reeses & giant peppermint sticks &xmas cookies. Kevin is such an optomist, he buys the "take out of the package & just bake" cookies because he knows Katie will guilt trip me into making them. If a pleasant smell is wafting thru our house during the holiday season--it's probably the air freshner.
I get a ham from work every year, we'll make it for christmas. Kevin usually gets a turkey from work. and we'll have sweet potatoes & Pillsbury frozen hot rolls, & real mashed potatoes for Koren, maybe green bean casserole. and Stove Top stuffing.

when I was a kid...

we opened our family gifts on Xmas eve, after checking out what Santa brought Xmas a.m., we'd milk & do chores & then go to a family Xmas at Grandma & Grandpa Brown's @ Trenton.
we always left Santa a plate of fudge & a cup of coffee. And Santa always left us a thank you note.
We had classroom gift exchanges, I was so excited one year when I got a box shaped gift---I just KNEW it was the lifesavers book full of candy. And it was a stuffed white dog in a box. I don't remember a lot of my childhood, but that one has stuck with me.

the wrapping

I like wrapping paper...it gets mangled in my closet, however. I like shiny paper, traditional paper, Santa paper, funny cartoony paper, themed papers like Bratz or Spongebob or Shrek. Bags are cool, too, but much eaiser to peek into. And when you start wrapping Xmas presents in summer...
I especially love shiny curly bows. I recycle them every year, the cat rips them off the presents & bats them around every year...
in the past Miss Cuddles has unwrapped any gifts she received that contained catnip.
every year I make my own gift tags...this year is aluminum foil stars. in the past I've made little xmas trees with decorations, brown paper bag gingerbread men...

shopping

I do most of the planning, shopping, hiding, & wrapping. It drives Kevin nuts, since I also buy my own presents. (who knows what I want better than me?) I shop year round. Kevin looked at the John Wayne Shepherd of the Hills dvd when we were @ Shepherd of the Hills on vacation. He thought it cost too much. I came home & ordered it on-line, the same price he thought was too high + shipping.
if the kids ever show any interest in anything...I buy it. (sometimes they really didn't want it--like the infamous year KJ got the VideoNow for Christmas. no matter how many little discs I bought for it, he still didn't really want it.)
when Koren was small, she had Barbie Christmas's. We spent the entire morning building cars & houses & furniture. Putting on the little stickers. Dressing Barbies in their new clothes.
A few years ago Katie had a "Holly Dolly Christmas"...I bought her all dolls, all sizes...from soft stuffed Barbie type little girl dolls to a My Size Annaleise Barbie.
KJ used to always get action figures for Xmas---Power Rangers, Batman, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Masked Rider, wrestlers. He also collected the stuffed Warner Brother beenie type action figures...Santa filled his stocking with them every year. He got the latest Power Rangers Power Zord every year.
Santa brought huge Lego sets...castles, Spiderman, NBA basketball, soccer.
He used to bring cool Playmobile sets, too...Wild West, Civil War...
Katie & KJ like more advanced gifts these days---Katie had DigiMakeover & dream life superstar on her list. kj wants PS2 games & horror dvds.
Kevin always gets a Chiefs shirt. Koren usually gets a Happy Bunny hoodie & $. Miss Cuddles gets cat toys.

An O. Henry Christmas

One Christmas not so long ago, we were in debt reconsolidation. We were making the payments, but there was nothing left over. Christmas was looking pretty bleak. That was the year they did the tax refund adjustment, I used the $ to buy the kids Xmas, divided evenly. Koren picked the yellow Cinderella prom dress off eBay. I comparison shopped to get the most I could for Kate & KJ---I remember we got the toy kitchen set for Katie. I can't think of what KJ got.

koren's first christmas

we were young & very poor. I didn't work. We lived in a musty smelling house on a road with no name in Eagleville, Mo. We were at the newly opened Bethany Wal-Mart with our wonderful new baby daughter, trying to select her first Christmas present from us. We had $3.00. Kevin wanted to give her the soft fuzzy pink bear with the musical ice cream cone. I wanted to give her the stuffed elephant with the rainbow ears. We didn't have enough $ for both. Finally, Kevin had Koren select her present. (The bear he wanted.) She played with that bear for many years...