Do you want to know something weird?
Early on we decided that this Christmas was going to be smaller than Christmases past. I made a point of not logging a huge order with an online toy store this year. I didn’t go crazy at the grocery store. The grown ups all drew names. Mark and I just did stockings.
Well, Mark just ran the numbers and we didn’t really save much money this year. How is that possible? Gah! Obviously I didn’t save as much as I thought.
In related news: I am brewing a post about the Shopping Embargo of 2009-2010. Continuing a fine tradition since 2006!
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Christmas Eve dinner at our house consisted of:
- broiled ginger salmon
- rice
- bacon-wrapped green beans
- green salad
- garlic bread
- molten chocolate lava cakes (so delicious and decadent … this recipe is definitely a new addiction addition to my recipe file!)
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On Christmas day I decided to try taking one photo every hour because I wanted to document the day in a different way.
Sarah was the first to wake up. I heard her pad into our bedroom quietly. She held her face very close to mine and whispered, “mumma, it’s Christmas!” Her hair was hanging down and tickling my nose. I think she does this on purpose. I wanted to see what she would do, so I pretended to be asleep.
She just kept whispering, and tickling. I had no choice but to get up.
She woke up her sister next and by the time I staggered out of bed (it was 6:30) they were already downstairs, eyeballing the stockings and the unwrapped gifts under the tree.
The rule is always this:
– wait for mom
– wait for dad (although he always takes a long time)
– stockings come first
– then break for coffee and a morning snack (always an orange or a banana)
– open the rest of the presents
In our house we always give the girls a pair of PJs the night before. On Christmas Day we give them books and a little something – this year we gave them some each a very lovely and intricate shadow puppet.
Santa fills their stockings and leaves toys.
Santa gave Emma a FurReal puppy dog (he walks and yips!) and Sarah a newborn guinea pig. The funny thing is that Sarah is allergic to real guinea pigs, so this is a fun substitute. Sarah has already constructed Buddy (that’s his name) a place to live out of a recycled box and some stuffing.
Santa also brought the girls some Playmobil, some squishy balls, the Game of Life, some olympic plushies (so cute), a puzzle for Emma, a squirrel hat for Sarah and a porcupine puppet (like the one we saw in the tree!), as well as some sweet treats.
Sarah bought Emma a Webkinz penguin and a squirrel wind-up toy, and Emma bought Sarah a snow-globe and some art supplies.
The girls bought me a lovely necklace made by a company called Kameleon (shown rather blurrily here) which they picked up at Quichua World Market on Richmond Road. The centre of it pops out and can be switched for another one. (And look at all the different ones that are available.) Sarah bought me the pink sparkly heart shown in the photo, and Emma picked one with a flower. I love it!
My stocking was filled with socks (love the socks) and tons of candy and some soapy stuff. Mark’s had a camping-size pepper grinder, socks and magazines, and more candy.
After unwrapping our gifts we collected our things and went to visit Mark’s parents. There were more gifts (including a Nikon Coolpix camera for each of the girls and a lovely red scarf for me) and MORE eating and merriment and Wii play. We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix after dinner. (Hence the very dark photos of the TV in yesterday’s post.)
Here are some photos the girls took with their new cameras :
We didn’t get home until 10:30, at which point we all dropped into our beds.
All in all it was a very good Christmas. How was yours?
