Merry Christmas!

Well, a day late, but I'm sure you're sick of it anyway.

Since Fran hasn't gotten me anything in 5 years (and I've reciprocated by getting him *very little* - I think I got him a 2L of orange soda last year...) I gave up and got him exactly NOTHING. Not a candy he likes, not a toy, nothing. And of course...this is the year he gets me something. http://www.nokiausa.com/770 and some candy.

Of course.

And I had NOTHING. Not so much as a candy cane.

Go me.

Anyway, Christmas rocked. Kids slept until 7:30. Loved their presents. Toddlerness proved that she will do things on *HER TERMS*. Sat on the couch and watched the big kids go nuts for a good half-hour (probably more) before she wanted to look at her presents. And then had a BLAST of it.

MIL had a drunk-dialing episode on Christmas Eve, but behaved on Christmas (aside from having Fran assemble the not-so-little red wagon she bought for Toddlerness). Good food, good time. Can't trust MIL to read labels for Tony. She is wrong far, far too often. And then she forgets what has milk in it and what doesn't (she handed Tony a large pack of muffins that I'D TOLD HER EARLIER WERE NOT OK as we were leaving, and then I had to be the bad guy and take them away). MIL is great, she does a lot of stuff for me, and she has a kind heart. Which I have to say every time I vent about my MIL - she is a bit screwed up, but a great person at the core. She bought nearly half the books I need for next quarter, a huge expense, as my Christmas gift. I literally don't know what I'd do without her.

Decorations!

Well, our decoration procrastination hit an all-time record this year. We finally, on the 22nd, got a Christmas tree (the top of one of the midsized cedars that fell during the windstorm) up and decorated. This beats our previous record of the 21st, on the year Toddlerness was born. The tree is...unconventional...but 8 feet tall and blinking the appropriate lights and sporting the appropriate ornaments. And there was no waste involved.

But yeah, thus began our Christmas season.

And why yes, I DO mean that I hadn't even dug the decorations out of the shed until then.

And why yes, I DO mean that I didn't send the presents to my family in HI until then.

Yay us, right?