Letter to December #8

Dear December,
Just writing those last few letters had me exhausted and so I had to take a break before I even started  on Christmas Eve.


Christmas Eve didn't turn out quite like I'd planned thanks to the snow, and more snow, and MORE snow you brought to us that day. Also, you must have talked the kids into being mischievous cause Christmas Eve morning the kids got into some markers upstairs while I was downstairs and wrote all over the walls! Permanent even. I did not think this was funny! Cleaning/ Scrubbing walls for 45 minutes was not what I had planned to do with my very busy Christmas Eve Schedule. Thank Goodness for Magic Erasers.

Christmas was at our house this year. My whole family came to us, which was great in that we didn't have to travel, they all did, and not so great in that I had all the house, and food preparations. Still I love to host a party so I didn't mind.


 After the crazy cleaning we went and did some last minute grocery shopping. The stores were packed! That huge snow storm made it pretty crazy to drive and run in and out of stores as well.  

When we got home we had some lunch, then the kids went down for naps while I wrapped, wrapped and wrapped some more. I got it all done before they woke up! It was a miracle! And I was almost done by the time my parents got here.

After the kids woke up we played in the snow for a bit, made snow ice cream and snow angels, ok my dad was the only one brave enough to try that.  We tried to make a snow man, but it had gotten colder by then so the snow wouldn't pack.

What a good Grandpa.

Can't get up!

Fun in the snow.

 I had decided earlier I was not going to have time for the wonderful homemade Mexican meal I had planned. I thought Mexican might be a fun tradition, since our first Christmas married was spent in Mexico on our honeymoon. Instead I decided we would be going out to eat at a local Mexican Restaurant. I was torn all day about it. I have a very hard time making people work on Holidays. I have worked in the food and retail industry and know how hard it is to have to be away from family to work. I never want to be the one to cause it for others. I pushed all those thoughts out though and decided it just had to happen.

Before dinner we realized there were a few things we still needed to get even after I shopped! My crazy forgetful brain and the craziness of the whole month can be blamed on this. By some miracle my sister and Dad were able to find everything at the store. Even the hard to find items. 

  Then it was finally time for dinner. So, way too late I started to call around to make sure Restaurants were open. No one was answering so we decided to head out and find an open Restaurant at about 6:00. Mexican Restaurants were all closed. Ok, that's fine, we'll go somewhere else, Chuck-A-Rama maybe? CLOSED!  Every restaurant on Main Street, CLOSED. Ok, that's fine, how about Pizza. "Sorry, we just took our last order of the night!" CRAP!  Panda Express to go was our saving grace and I only sang FaRaRaRaRa a few times. I have to say I was quite impressed with all the closed restaurants! I'm glad those people got to be home with their families. I'm disappointed in myself that I couldn't get things together enough to make a home cooked Christmas Eve meal. Next year I'll be better. 

After dinner we opened up pajamas, watched a few videos about Christ's birth, wrote down our gifts to Christ and put them in his stocking,  put out cookies and milk and then got the kids to bed. Cache got to sleep in Season's room since my parents were in his. Then right before they fell asleep John came home from work. At about 10:30. He was able to say goodnight to them, and they fell asleep happy, excited for Santa to come.

Hugging in their new pajamas.

John's day at UPS was INSANE! The snow made things miserable for him and his drivers and he was out delivering until 10:00 trying to get as many packages delivered as he could. Because of the snow there were still some 200 that didn't get there in time for Christmas, even after they were out so late. John was feeling horrible about not being home with the family, but at the same time knew he had to do all he could at work. He was frozen when he got home. His socks had been soaked since 1 that afternoon and all the hot chocolate we had in the house couldn't help him warm up, poor guy. Talk about December really taking us down right up to the last minute.

After the kids were in bed I prepared my Sweet Potatoes and Cheesy Potato Casserole. Dad got the Orange French Toast all ready.  My mom helped Santa get all the presents under the tree and the stockings filled, and then everyone went to bed except me. I still had a gift I had to finish up. In the end it wasn't as late a night as it could have been. I was only up till 1:30, and slept great when I finally crashed. 

Still the day was exhausting.
December you definitely won that day.
Anna 5 December 4

Sincerely,
Anna