Santa Laughed about the Snow Request, but he Delivered

It's been a glorious, peaceful past couple of days.....on 12/23 I worked a few hours and when I got home I literally kicked my heels into the air, making a scene in the kitchen and then the family room, overjoyed to be home.  The 14 yr old looked at me and said, "Gee, Mom."

I did go out for two hours on Christmas Eve for some last minute TJ Maxx, Target and food shopping and was home at 12 noon and more jumping for joy followed. Everyone did what made them happy on Christmas Eve....I baked some cookies for Youngest and two friends to decorate...Middle Son went skateboarding, and Eldest made social activity plans.  Hubs watched movies, cleaned and napped after he helped me wrap some presents.

Our very dry tree from Home Depot has been hanging in there.  Hubs is one to love to clean up after Christmas so he is already hinting it may not last till January 2nd......

 I added a crafty item to the decor this year....At Goodwill I found three identical vases and Goodwill also had a bag of plastic fake snow and I bought three strands of lights--the kind that don't connect and created this blue and white light display below.

After Christmas Eve dinner we watched Toy Story 3 and in the middle of the movie our dvd player conked out.  Thank goodness for buying the $25 spare one one year during Black Friday (today Hubs spent 4 hours trying to repair it and found a stray dvd that had escaped into the guts of the machine but that wasn't the culprit. It may be the receiver).

One of our traditions is having the boys get a present for each other.  Oldest had mentioned wanting a cologne called Mambo (!!!) so he got cologne for the first time ever.  Hubs took Youngest shopping to four stores in search of Mambo and then he went to TJ Maxx and they found it (the whole family now understands why I go there).  After he opened it (see below) we asked how he heard of it and he said the older high school guys put it on after P.E. (they have no time built in for showering...eww).

Youngest was in Nerf gun heaven.....

You may recall that at our visit last Sunday to see Santa that Oldest asked for an electric toothbrush and so he was pretty happy to find it:

You may also recall that Middle son asked for a White Christmas and Santa laughed...  But it historically snowed in Georgia on Christmas (here is Middle son who loves warm clothes and got a new robe and slippers):

 Hubs and I went for a walk and it felt slippery underfoot.  When we got home I took this picture:

On Christmas Day the boys woke up one at a time starting at 9:00 a.m.  They check out their stocking and wait.  We didn't get out of bed till 10:00 a.m.  This year we had a stocking for a hamster also. Right away I make those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and coffee for me and juice for all of them and then later at about 2:30 we have what I call "party food": spiral ham, rolls, shrimp cocktail, mexican dip and chips, artichoke dip, deviled eggs, raw veggies and mac 'n cheese.

I got a few new scarves that I love to wear and I asked the boys for some music to be loaded on my Ipod before the big day (I have no patience for any of that) and I got a coffee grinder for the first time (haven't tried it yet).

A whole seven days ahead of us with no where to be at any specific time!  I think that tomorrow we will go see True Grit and another day we'll see Black Swan.  We have plans for bowling, having lunch out, maybe a hike if it should warm up (tonight is 19 degrees).  Today I told Hubs that every day I am going to do a little cleaning project like clean out the spice/baking cabinet, something for me like make a bracelet, cook something and do something with the boys.  he said, "Oh, and exercise too".  I said, "Well, now I am overextended."

I hope you had/are having a wonderful holiday with people you love and the rest of the year is filled with good times.

P.S.--Decided to make mulled wine and I always forget stuff on the stove and just remembered and now 35 minutes later half of it evaporated (it tasted good at first but one small glass later it doesn't sit so well).
P.P.S.-- After enlisting Youngest's help for hours earlier on the dvd situation, Hubs now has Middle son helping to figure it out for the past hour.  Now it is working.
P.P.P.S.-- Remember Oldest's platonic female friend who is super-organized with arranging get-togethers and clothes-wearing advise??  She just invited him to a big New Year's Eve party at her house.  Our eldest has a more active social life than we do.