Gifts Before Christmas

Sigh, it's the last day of December.  I'm very sentimental but I am ready for a new year.  So ready that I gathered all the Christmas knick knacks and placed them on the living room floor to be packed away tomorrow or the next day.

I bought almost everything for the boys from Amazon.  At the beginning of December I told the older two to pick out what they wanted from Amazon and to put it in the cart for my perusal later.  They know the price range.  One of my middle son's gifts was an acoustic guitar.

I'm totally amazed that the large box arrived with a huge sticker on the front showing exactly what the gift was.  Our UPS guy arrives at 5:00 p.m. and everyone is home and saw the gift.  Good thing it was not a surprise gift.  I do lament how gift giving was a little more exciting when they were younger but they assure me they do not mind there are no surprises as long as they get some things they covet.

So the huge guitar box went un-wrapped under the tree and it was the first item.

I should complain on Amazon as a reviewer and warn future recipients.

My husband received a $100 gift card to Home Depot from his students, which is so nice.  The day before Christmas here is what he bought:

On Christmas Eve he installed a new garbage disposal as ours bit the dust a few days into winter break.

Tonight on New Year's Eve we are home watching dvds after turning down a neighbor's party.  We are exhausted --although there is always the chance that Hubs gets a second wind late at night doing house stuff.  Yes, you heard me -- usually he finds something to fix or something to clean at 11:00 p.m. or so (I have started a photo journal of this habit).  Last night's chore, however, is a very ugly, horrendous project that is taking place in the basement.

The oldest two sons have been invited to spend the night at different friends' houses and we are here with our 5th grade son.  Talk about gifts before Christmas.  I was just reminding Hubs how eleven years ago when we lived in a different house (that was not a Money Pit) we had a few friends over ringing in the year 2000.

We had been trying for baby number 3 and I would later find out in January that our Christmas gift was arriving in September, 2000 (a year 2000 in the Year of the Dragon is a Golden Dragon.  He loves that).

He is a wonderful gift and my buddy.  With flexible eyebrows:

And as much as my Hubs annoys me with his constant need to clean and do chores just when I am relaxing, I do treasure that he still drives the boys to three different restaurants -- even this year -- to get me restaurant gift cards  for our one-on-one dates.  He started this tradition when they were very little.  And they make cards to this day out of my former-life-scrapbook materials.  They put them actually on the tree.  And I peek ahead of time. 

What they write makes tears drop from my eyes, makes me smile and gives me strength.


It's almost time to ring in the New Year and I am seriously hearing Moonshiners on the TV--better go change the channel.  Happy New Year!