Ready to Rumble

I woke up this morning to a perfectly lovely phone call from my perfectly lovely friend Maia...all the way from London! We chatted ~ where does the time go when I'm catching up with Maia?!? ~ and since she reads this blog to stay in touch, she also checked in on Mimi. I was happy to be able to tell her that Mimi has rebounded...it's been quite a rollercoaster, but she was released on Christmas day, back at the emergency room two nights later, home and doctor's appointments after that, and she finished radiation and begins chemo next week... I apologized for sounding like a lunatic here, and Maia's so sweet! She was all, "No! No, not at all. You..no...it was...you're fine." Yeah. Sorry! It's all just a little too much, but she's so much better and your thoughts and prayers (yes, I said it! :) have meant the world to me.

Other than all that, which turned out in the best possible way that it could, the last two weeks have been heavenly. We had a glorious Christmas at home ~ just the four of us on Christmas eve (first...time...ever!).
Which turned out to be a real blessing, considering that neither Erik, nor I, had bothered to wrap or assemble a single present prior to 11 pm on Christmas Eve. Whoops! No worries, though, we were quickly sorted and wrapped and color-coordinated. "Santa" used white printed paper for Scotty, green paper for Tommy; mommy and daddy used red paper for both boys.


We turned out all the lights, and left the tree glowing. At 1 am, when we finally fell into bed, we knew the kids would get up before us and we wanted it to be magical when they did.

Little did we know that Tommy would wake up at 3:45. In the morning. Seriously. We convinced him that it's really in everybody's best interest if we go back to sleep for a few hours. Our compromise? We let him open the few trinkets in his stocking. Now. Go. To. Bed.

Eventually, Tommy could wait no longer, so we woke up Scotty (idiots...who wakes up a sleeping child?!?) and then there was some excitement. It looked like this.





The excitement quickly morphed into indecision...what should be opened first??? Turned out? It didn't even matter. They loved everything, and, as a Christmas miracle, we got them exactly the right presents ~ both in content and quantity. Go team!

Oh, hey...see that wooden castle Scotty is adoring in that picture?


We thought it might take a few days for this to happen, but nope. Less than 10 hours. They both unceremoniously tossed out the ADORABLE wooden figures, and moved in the dragons and knights and jedis from their lego kits. Boys. They are so rotten.




Here are the "orc armies" storming the castle. Uh. Probably not age apropriate to watch the Lord of the Rings movies with a 9 year old and a 4 year old?...that probably won't scar them? Ahem.

Anyway, possibly my very best memory from this Christmas will the hours we spent, listening to Tommy play with these lego castle kits, using what I frankly assessed to be a fairly decent British accent.

"Xavier is in the dungeon!" Be still my heart!



So, I'm behind "blog world" in chronicling the handmades this Christmas, and our two weeks we spent at home with all four of us (perfect!), and of course all the New Year excitement and my very favorite gifts (oh, there are a few!!)...but that's just our rhythm. We'll catch as catch can, but mostly, I am hope-hope-hoping that it was as special and magical for you as it was for us.