To start off with, as I was changing the sheets on our bed a few days before Christmas, I got an extremely unpleasant surprise. We had mold, all over 2 of our pillows! We'd been sleeping on these things all this while, I'd changed the sheets maybe only a couple weeks before and nothing had been there, and all of a sudden there was nasty green and blue mold covering the backs of our pillows where they touched the wall. Wow. Not cool. And then we found that this problem extended to our mattress as well. Double not cool. The pillows were a total loss...we knew it immediately, and didn't even try to salvage them. The mattress though...we'd been saving for one (the thing was OLD, even when we got it from a friend when we got married), but we were only about halfway to where we had wanted to be when we started looking. So we tried to save the thing. I must have soaked it and then some in Borax and water. But we gave up...the smell just wasn't going away. Daddy took it down the stairs and into the alley, and I turned the air purifier on high and closed the bedroom doors. And there we were, 2 days before Christmas, with nothing but our air mattress (which is nice, but I'm the only one who sleeps well on air), and our couch (much too narrow for the both of us).
But thank goodness for that financial class!! Without it we would not have been saving for a bed at all, we would not have had as much in our emergency fund, and this would have been a much, much bigger problem than it was. We agreed on an amount to withdraw from savings to add to our save-for-bed fund, and started shopping. I think we went to about a half-dozen different bed or furniture stores over that weekend, but in the end, we went back to the first place we'd gone--they'd offered us the best deal...and it was indeed a good deal money-wise--we were able to return a good portion back to savings, and got not just the mattress, but a frame to keep it off the wall as well. Then we settled in to wait, expecting to have our new bed in about a week to 2 weeks. Yeah...3 weeks later, it finally arrived. The store had kinda 'neglected' to tell us that their factory was shut down between Christmas and New Years. Nice. :P And it was a *lot* higher than they had told us to expect--no Munchie allowed on this bed! Her head is the only thing that shows over it, and even that is barely. So not as great a deal as we initially thought. But it IS comfy... :)
So that was the eventual result of our pre-Christmas trial. Christmas itself was pretty nice. I had the house decked out, and for the first time ever, I put some of my houses under my tree. I'd always wanted to do that, but my baby Ebony had always claimed that space for herself, and I wasn't going to get into that sort of fight...I wouldn't win. ;)
My Victorian Puzzle houses that I build every year...It only takes me about 45 minutes to do one now, I've done them so many times!
The dining room
I had fun with close-ups on my main village.
My favorite porcelain house (can you guess why?)...and also my newest, only a couple years old.
My tree, with houses underneath. Almost every ornament on there was plastic this year--they make such lovely plastic balls now! This was the first year I went all white on the lights, and I really loved it.
The stockings, next to a BIG present for the Munch.
Christmas Eve we held the same breakfast we'd held last year. We didn't have as many attendees, as a lot of people chose this year to go out of town, but we did have some precious friends join us, as well as Daddy's immediate family. It was a lovely morning.
Little K's parents came down from Wisconsin, not just for us, but I'd like to pretend so. ;)
Some of a dear friend's family, with Munch's Grandpa in the back, watching them spin toys.
And then the presents. Munch got spoiled last year. And she got spoiled again this year...
The first gift was a grill to go with her play kitchen...after that, she didn't want to open anything else...
Until she realized she was also receiving new clothes for her baby doll, and then she only wanted to play with those...
Until she opened the books Grandma gave her...she insisted on 'reading' one while opening the other. Daddy was making all kinds of faces as she did so...we were all very entertained.
And then, Joy of Joys, she got a new baby doll too! Here's a happy baby on her Grandma's lap.
But we started the morning with the packages that had arrived from my family and friends...
Yay for ART stuffs! But of course she wanted to open it right away...we managed to distract her... ;)
One friend who had known Ebony when I lived in Seattle, and who had come for a visit literally right after she died, sent me a package that, among other things, held an ornament: a little black kitty with wings and halo. So after I'd cried for a bit (ON CHRISTMAS!!!), I hung it up. And it, like a very select other few, will get hung up regardless of my tree 'themes' from this point on. It is such a fitting tribute to my baby cat.
From there we moved on to stockings:
For the Munch, various musical instruments, including a rainmaker I'd gotten lucky on...all the others in the store had been full of static, but not this one!
And a 'Saw-caw baw!' Which she exclaimed with great enthusiasm as soon as she saw it through the wrapping, totally surprising Daddy, who hadn't known that she knew precisely what it was. :)
Daddy and I continued our new-found tradition (as of last year) of holding scavenger hunts that begin in the stockings. We each went about it a little differently, but with an agreed-upon amount to spend on each other. I gave him several small wrapped packages, each with a rhyming note on them to clue him in to where to look for the next one. He gave me a couple unwrapped goodies (90% cacao chocolate...heck yes!) straight from the stocking, and I had to find the little paper in the toe of the stocking to begin my hunt...for similar tiny scraps of cryptic writings that were all over the place, leading to a final pricier gift. We had much fun. :)
Reading a rhyme after finding a gift hiding behind my porcelain church.
I caught the perfect moment on this one. Daddy likes peeps. Like, a LOT. I happened to find gingerbread peeps at Target, and my reaction in the store was probably very similar to his. :) And yes, he liked them. A lot. :)
Daddy had been sleeping on the couch, so I used that for one of his clues. He couldn't believe he'd slept with a gift hiding practically under his nose. :)
My turn--Since he hides scraps of paper, he has a lot more random places that he can use...like behind clocks...
Inside the take-out menu pocket...
And among the lentils and garlic...
And then, the big one, which Munchie, not fully aware yet what it meant, had been waiting for without really knowing she was waiting...
She's definitely figured out how to rip paper by now--she pulled off the ribbons and such in no time, and quickly uncovered the chest...in which were a whole bunch more wrapped goodies.
This. Was her favorite present. Go figure...
Getting her started on life as a princess. ;)
It was a full and lengthy morning for us. Lots of gifts, food, a Veggie Tale movie to watch (she still will only sit for maybe 15 minutes when we put anything on...I'm fine with that... ;) ) And then we thought to open the blinds:
WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!! I don't know when I have been so excited to see snow. We'd barely had anything up to this point, weren't expecting any, and I'd resigned myself to yet another snow-less Christmas all too reminiscent of my years in Seattle...and then we got this. I was, quite literally, jumping up and down and squealing. I was that happy. :)
That evening, as a final 'official' festivity, we headed south a little to Daddy's extended family: His various cousins and aunts and uncles from his mother's best friend's husband's side of the family. (Were you able to follow that? They're family, blood or not. :) ) It had been a last minute invite, as we have usually been out of town in the past, so Munch only got presents from those who knew we would be there...namely, Auntie and Grandparents. She didn't care. She loved her coloring book. And we loved spending yet more time with people we care about. The day went very, very long...There were more than a few young ones who were several hours past their bedtimes when we finished the last round of gifts (a big White Elephant exchange), and said our goodnights. Christmas this year was a very full couple of days. I was grateful to have the next couple weeks off to recuperate! :)
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