Saturday, December 26, 2009

Home for Christmas

The Bunny is too young for us to travel to Colorado for the holidays this year, so we had our first family Christmas at home. It was a far smaller affair than we are used to. My brother and his wife were also unable to fly away so they drove up to spend the holiday with us, and my father-in-law joined us on Christmas Eve, too. Since this was a big year for the Bug - really the first time she was able to get into Santa and the holiday schtick - I wanted everything to be perfect.

I spent the week cooking, which is something I've never done before. My hope was that things would go smoothly on the big day, which was still something of a pipe dream... apparently having two little kids running around guarantees dinner will be delayed. But it was actually fun to test the capacities of our freezer and oven, and I was pleased with the results all around.

More exciting, though, was watching the holiday unfold through the Bug's eyes. She had so much fun Christmas morning: putting the last ornament on the advent calendar, seeing the stockings filled beyond capacity, opening all of her presents (and all of the Bunny's). And she was a trooper, missing naps and staying as sweet as could be... though I'm sure it helped to have a bunch of grown-ups around with endless patience for Candy Land and Animal Bingo. A 2-year-old really makes for the most awesome Christmas imaginable! The Bunny was happy and adorable, but at 6 weeks old she could not have cared less about the hubbub. The big guy and his associates were generous to a fault, and the toys and other cool stuff (of particular note: sparkly pink shoes for the Bug) are still strewn about. Clean-up will happen soon enough; for now, I just want to relax, drink some wine and reflect on the lovely past couple of days.

4 comments:

little snail in a big bottle said...

That sounds so cute, Christmas is always more fun when theres a child in the house! It hasn't been the same for us since my brother stopped believing in santa (not including the years he pretended he believed so that we'd get more presents...he's alot smarter than I am..as soon as he got too old to deny it anymore the presents got fewer and fewer..if I'd known that trick years ago I'd still be setting milk and cookies out every year!!)

Alison said...

It really was so great to be with your family this holiday. Thank you for opening your home to us. You were the perfect hostess and seeing the little ones experience Santa and all his magic was certainly a heart-warming experience. Thanks again!

Big Girl said...

Christmas is all about the kids. It makes it magical again!

Angie said...

@snail and @Big Girl - Thanks for the comments, and so glad you agree. I definitely feel differently about the holidays now that I have kids - it's all about my girls!

@Alison - We loved having you here!! Thanks for the visit!