The holidays in general have been interesting this year. Now that I'm a domestic diva, yep, thats right, DIVA, I actually can enjoy the holidays more. That being said, this is the first year in 4 or 5 years that I haven't worked Thanksgiving, Festivus, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day...... You get the point. Having worked ER long enough and being married to the PD's schedule, it wasn't that unusual to work, enjoying the holiday OT, and often trying to give the people with little kids the day off, in hopes that when it was my turn, someone would return the favor. Matt, unfortunately, was working his 2nd night shift on Christmas Eve. Since he'd be sleeping part of Christmas Day to recover, I decided some weeks ago that Wee and I would spend the night at my mom's house so Matt would have a quiet house and we could do the Basch family Christmas during the day and the Anderson portion at night time. The plan ended up working really well because Betsy spent the night too. I'll admit it was a bit surreal to be in my childhood home and my old bed, knowing I'm married now and I've got Cadence in the pack n play right next to me. All went very well though.
Betsy beat me to mom's on Christmas Eve where we had a mellow evening playing pass the baby and eating Tequila Lime Prawns, yum, and drinking pomegranate vodka mixed with whatever we could find to make it taste like juice. (that wasn't hard). Some of my girlfriends even came over to celebrate the holiday with us, Jenna, Nina, and Courtney with Connor. We all had a blast being entertained by Connor and his repeated statements of "I'm so happy and exited to be here!" and "I'm so happy to see you". Connor was well behaved and SUCH a doll with both Cadence and Joey. I'd say he spent time equally fawning over both. After more rounds of pass the baby and lots of conversation, I headed to Courtney's to help her wrap presents while Cader stayed with Nana and Aunt Betsy for a while.
Our night at the ol' stomping grounds went well and Wee only woke up twice.... now that in itself was a Christmas present! I woke up around 0730 Christmas morning, gave Joey his meds and pretty much started the day. We lazed around a lot and had a leisurely breakfast of scones (delish) and crustless but not low fat quiche. (Also extremely delish). After brekky, mom and I ended up snoozing a bit and we never got around to opening presents until after 1:00! Go figure.
Per normal, Betsy and I were spoiled, but we had fun spoiling mom this year too, we got her an iPad. One of the more entertaining parts of the gift was that mom repeatedly asked for it without being hinty. She had no idea what she'd do with it, but knew she wanted one. Bets and I enjoyed household products that we requested, candles, gift certificates to get our hair done, facials, massages, all things good! Wee got some toys that I'm sure she'll appreciate at some point, but I think they're creepy for now. (Sing-a-ma-jig) and some cute outfits and books.
After presents and our favorite tradition, mom's version of Christmas cosmos, Wee and I headed home to get Matt so we could head over for Christmas phase 2 at Ma and Pa Anderson's. No Christmas dinner is complete without the fabulous Dennis and Don and Dennis' cosmos! This year we even got red velvet cake. Did I mention that calories are nonexistent on Christmas??? The evening was also special since Uncle Pete and Aunt Kelsey were in town for the holiday and it was their first chance to meet Miss Cadence in person instead of on Skype.
Dinner was fantastic. We dined on ham, Swedish meatballs, mac' n cheese, potatoes, all things that no calorie conscious person would enjoy. Salad a la earring was also consumed.... somehow my mom lost an earring while preparing the salad.... The infamous earring was not only located, but located in Tom's mouth after it wound up on his plate hidden amongst the greens....... Clearly, we all thought this was funny. Other comical/memorable events from the evening would be Dennis walking in on my nursing Cadence and promptly exclaiming "thats not the bathroom!" (no, I was in the office) {Pretty sure he was more shocked than I was}, and the Jesus cake.... When Betsy and I were growing up, our mom had us sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus in the ORIGINAL manger, not the overly colorful Mexican one she insists on using today. (I'm sorry, I don't do change and its not authentic and I'm quite positive Jesus didn't wear teal and red and gold, it was too flashy for him). Martha had thought there was a cake involved so she seemed quite surprised when I asked why there was a baby Jesus statue on a vanilla cake.... It made sense that there would be a cake involved but we never sang to the deity of baked goods before. We all had a good laugh at the slight misinterpretation of an old tradition. Perhaps we should have had cake all along!
Other funny moments included Dennis referring to himself, while holding Cadence, as "Auntie" Dennis. I don't think he'll ever be just Dennis again. Auntie seems remarkably fitting.
Since the day had been long and sleep was in short quantities, we decided to skip doing presents with Ma and Pa Anderson for the following day so the Christmas event could last longer. We had planned on having brekky with them Sunday anyways. Sunday's breakfast was amazing, decadent, and per my own ruling, calorie free. Bacon, sausage (turkey anyways), eggs, Danish Kringle, cardamon braid, and apple ebelskivers. Afterwards, we enjoyed exchanging gifts again. I enjoyed giving Ma and Pa Anderson Catch Phrase, and loved playing it for hours even more. That being said, it was NOT enjoyable having Matt on the opposing team.
Christmas 2010 was great overall. Its hard to believe next year Cadence will be one and terrorizing the tree, gifts, and likely not sitting still at all. Not only will we cherish this year's memories, but cherish the generally quiet and still baby that was perfectly portable!
Merry belated Christmas to all!!!
