Tiny Plastic Houses

Christmas 2013 Redux

Christmas this year was many things, but short seems to define it most correctly! My two-day holiday felt shorter than any in the past, but that seems to follow in line with the rest of 2013. It has proven to be the shortest year in recent memory and definitely one of the busiest.

The children were very excited about the Jolly Fat Man’s impending visit and anticipated great things… So when I suggested late last week that he was concerned about the state of their room and them having enough usable space for the wonderful gifts he had planned, they were on it! Their room, which normally takes forever to straighten, took only an hour of work to make presentable. Toys put away, floor cleared and beds made!

Amongst discussions about who the mysterious gift giver was in league with and outright asking me if I, myself, was Santa Clause, the girls’ told everyone under the sun that they were going to get a Monster High School for their dolls to live and play in from the Old Man Santa. (I assured them that I was NOT Santa, but that I was a helper, as I was every year.) After hearing their father discussing arrival times and location quietly with a mysterious voice on the phone (“over Paris right now”), the children knew they’d better be on time to bed and straight to sleep or there would be no presents for them this year! (Our Santa does not mind adults so much, but gets very nervous and skiddish around human children. This means, mom and dad may stay up late and not hinder the adventure, but children are a big no-no when it comes to The Man in Red!

Christmas Day Recap:

Jason and I spent the last moments of Christmas eve watching odd horror flicks, putting together and staging a Monster High School, eating cookies and trying to not wake up sleeping children!

 

The next morning, it was Mae who I heard stir first. Soon, both girls were awake and listening to me tell the that I had not heard their benefactor that night and was concerned something might have happened during his magical (and kinda creepy, if you ask me) tour of all the believer’s houses. Mae, ever The Clause’s champion, assured me that he must have come as she heard the Christmas tree ornaments shaking (probably the black cat who has some strange desire to make our Christmas tree taste her pain) and Miranda swore she heard his voice and strange clopping noises from atop our roof. (Never mind that a large man with heavy feet would not so safely traverse our rooftop… Santa is magic! He needs not abide by the rules of mortals!) ;D

The anticipation was thick as I made them wait a few moments longer for Mae to put on some pants citing the rights of motherhood as the reason… Seriously, she knew I would want to take pictures and it just would not do to have my child appearing pantless in our family album that I knew relatives & friends would be thumbing through. (Oh, don’t get me wrong. Mae has a thing for running around in various stages of undress and, try as we might, it is impossible to quell, even at this late age… Still, I do have some dignity, you know, and refused to have her parading around half dressed in all of my Christmas pics!)

They entered the darkened room with only the Christmas tree to light the way and before a single cord was pulled, Miranda declared the  presents were there and that it was, indeed, a Monster High School! (How she knew this in pitch blackness, I will never know, but Mae threw on the switch and both girls stared, slack-jawed in wonder. Mae squealed “All of our favorite dolls are in it! How did he GET them OUT OF OUR ROOM!!” (Magic, children… The jolly man has his ways.) They poked and prodded the toys, also marveling at the two giant (1/2 pound each) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and whole pound Hershey Chocolate Bar he’d left for the whole family. Soon, Miranda discovered the Deluxe Magic Set and was intrigued with the myriad of tricks available for her to learn and demonstrate, ripping it over and asking me to explain how I was making them work… Santa definitely had their numbers! (A Little-known Fact About Me: I used to really be in to magic when I was a child. I would take books out of the public library on a regular basis learning how to design and implement tricks. I studied the masters and their plans. I watched the specials and speculated on how the tricks were being done based on my limited knowledge… In short, I was a big magic nerd, lol. So, yeah, mom is the resident dork when it comes to magic tricks on TV and otherwise at our house!)

After investigating the half eaten cookies left behind, deciding no one should eat them lest they catch Santa’s germs and be transformed into the man himself (Miranda’s brainchild: I don’t know where she gets these ideas, but I approve!) and finding his note written in his usual hand, it was time to pillage the stockings and examine the “normal” presents from Mom & Dad under the tree. (Santa had told them in his note that he’d brought mostly “together” presents this year to encourage them to get along better in 2014… Of course, being Santa’s accountant, I knew that the two gifts that were so prominently displayed on our coffee table had put Santa back quite a few pennies and those combined sleigh repairs over the past couple months had tightened his purse strings substantially.)

 

Miranda had some idea of what her gift was before she’d even opened it. The odd shaped box and less-than-substantial weight had her calling it “The Monster High Doll” before it was even pulled out from under the tree. However, Mae’s present, a collector Barbie in the likeness of Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games, complete with jacket, cargo pants, bow, arrows, and quiver… all in the likeness of Miss Jennifer Lawrence, herself, was unexpected and sent Mae into a fit of joy so powerful it is hard to describe. I’d bought the doll uncertain of its reception, to be honest, and I knew that either she’d love it… or she’d toss it aside. However, I had no idea she would love it this much and was so happy I’d hunted it down and purchased, even after it was sold out across town. Yay for the internet and moms everywhere!

 

Of course, our Christmas morning was quickly coming to a close and we still had to make the drive to the country for Christmas dinner and family holiday time. The drive was uneventful, for the most part. My gorgeous Betty, a 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT, made the trip with few troubles despite my concerns about bottoming out on or sliding off of snow and ice-covered gravel roads, and we were soon pulling up to my grandparents farm in Northwest Missouri. We came bearing three types of cookies and homemade gifts of bracelets and Ninja Bread Christmas ornaments!

 

Everyone there was in good spirits and it was great to spend time really talking with relatives I don’t get to see on a regular basis. Of course, we all honored the missing and the fallen and acknowledged their absence, whether it was due to scheduling, responsibility, or death. Everyone enjoyed the delicious food prepared for the meal. There was of course sledding and Jake Boarding… and everyone seemed almost giddy as they shared the gifts they’d brought for everyone. I received the handled mixing bowl to go along with my Kitchen Aide mixer, ever my favorite bridal gift even after these 11 years — well, that and the smoking juke-joint Jezebel incense holder which is also a grand favorite displayed with honor on my hall bookshelf, a jacket, a book safe, a handkerchief, and many, many other odds and ends that equaled up to a very generous family. The children’s big highlight of the event were the rockin’ scooters and Adventure Time themed packs they received from their great aunt and uncle, but all gifts were well received and appreciated. 

 

Then it was back home so that we could watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Yes, dear reader, we are Whovians at this house and The Doctor and pizza was the perfect end to a lovely day!

I am now back to work today and the girls and Jason met me for lunch then are off to Toys ‘R’ Us to spend a little of their Christmas money. (I hope there are no shenanigans!) The girls’ room is currently in a holding pattern and Santa’s note praising their effort and wishing it had been a year-long endeavor may be enough to keep this going for a couple months… Maybe… Everyone took part in the after Christmas sales and the girls had me order a few items for them off of Amazon using some of their Christmas money.

Have a happy holiday season!
~H

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 26th, 2013 at 2:57 pm. It is filed under Blog and tagged with Holiday, Photo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.