Holiday fun part two

I don't have pictures yet (hint, hint, Lil Bro), but will post the highlights of the holiday celebration.

Kids: got Heelys. Wow. That went over well. And MP3 players. Also a success. And a portable DVD player. Which made the twelve-hour drive from Michigan to Memphis much less irritating. Number of movies watched: two. Number of times Susie listened to "Twelve Days of Christmas" by the Muppets: 58. Number of times The Boy listened to the Grinch song: 63. Hours of NOT hearing "Are we there yet?": priceless.

Our haul: I gave the Husband an Ipod for his birthday. So for Christmas his gifts mostly followed that theme: speakers, car adapter, car charger. And a green sweater and a giftcard for a book retailer. I did quite well - the food processor that matches my mixer, a necklace and earrings set, a cookbook and a recipe organizer, and a beautiful diamond and pearl necklace (which doubles as a Mother's Necklace since the kids are June and April babies). And chap-stick, of course.

But the best part of the holiday wasn't the gifts. It was having time to reconnect with the family. Getting to know Lil Bro's Hot Blonde Girlfriend was fantastic. She brings out good things in him and smooths over some of his rough spots. They seem to have so much fun together. And the side-bonus was how well she and Susie got along. She may reach "Favorite Aunt" status without even being an official aunt. Of course, purple woolen removeable dreadlocks make for some great tween bonding opportunities!!

From New Year's Eve

After Christmas dinner, after sorting and consolidating the stuff and getting the kids and Grandma to bed, we four thirty-somethings were about to head back to the hotel but sat and talked with Mom and Dad for a while. That was nice. And then we went back to the hotel and realized that there was wine to drink that we hadn't even opened yet. So we drank it and had a wonderful time chatting, rehashing the weekend, and then watching an episode of Angel that The Husband and I hadn't seen (disclaimer: we hadn't seen any of that season....but will likely rectify that soon). And then the wine was gone but we realized that there was a whole CASE of wine in the car. No, we didn't drink the whole case, but we did get another bottle. Because we were just going to be traveling the next day and who cares if we had a little more? Fortunately none of us seemed any worse for the wear yesterday, and we all made it safely home.

And by 9 a.m. the children, at my direction, had unpacked their suitcases and put away many of their new toys and stuff. Susie has mostly figured out how to make her Heelys work, and The Boy has been playing Lego Star Wars 2 most of the day. There's definitely a grocery run in the works if we want to eat anything for dinner, but I anticipate a family game night getting started in a few hours.

Glad it only happens once a year, but it was definitely a good one.