When we woke up on Christmas Eve, we knew to expect some winter weather. The local weather guys have been terrorizing us with all-too-scary forecasts for weeks. But they kept pushing back the bulk of the snow later and later in the day, so when my husband got up at 6:30 AM, it was a total surprise for him to hop quickly from the shower and tell me that we already had a few inches of snow and that we needed to get a move on.
I said, "Can I sleep for 15 more minutes?". The additional sleep didn't harm our trip at all. We were packed in the car and off within an hour. This was because we had everything but my suitcase and our toothbrushes packed. While Husby packed up the car, the snow recovered the car in another inch or so, meaning that it was snowing HARD. I could tell this made him more tense than it made me. So I tried to be nice and rushed along, ignoring my hair straightener and eye make up for the trip.
We stopped for gas and pulled next to a MoDOT snow plow, who declared the highway as "Shhhhhhheeeeeeet". I think he had higher standards than I do, because it was just mostly covered and not really all that dangerous for a 4 wheel drive car and a reduced speed. I know we were lucky to have a good driver and to follow a snow plow, but it only took about 45 minutes longer than normal to get to our destination!
We arrived in his hometown and the roads were just slushy. We picked up some donuts at the delicious bakery, and made our way to his parents' home. It was just 9:30 AM or so. The view out the windows already looked like this:
It was gorgeous! My mother in law had some mulled cider simmering, which made the house seem so cozy. Her tree was lit and tinseled, and there was nothing to do but relax and enjoy being cozy.
We also had delicious homemade pizza, which seems like the most perfect meal for a Christmas Eve lunch.
One set of relatives came for a brief visit and dropped off some homemade cookies and a gift for DHH. Grandma Haid also came to visit, bringing entirely too much chocolate and a collection of Kennedy Half Dollars (I think? I have no idea. I was distracted by my kid.) for us all.
She also gave cash this year, and I was really thankful for it, but I was also thankful that my husband and brother in law were a little disappointed and wanted "some neat old stuff from her house". I think its special that they value their grandmother's gift of memories and memorabilia more than cash! And she does have some neat, quirky gifts. One year she gave my BIL an old Rubix cube and my husband got a large silver belt buckle with his grandpa's name (his name too) emblazoned on it. I know that each guy didn't ask Santa for those specific gifts, but it was really neat that they valued them. She has shared some of her glassware with me, too, which is neat. Side note: She has a lot of family dishes, and a lot of them have an H monogram on them. I think that is really neat. Wouldn't it be cool to have a party and serve with spoons with H's on them?
Everyone took a rest for awhile, but the shortest rest was probably my son's. He wanted me to just hold him on my chest and sing carols to him. His sister was less enthusiastic about this arrangement and spent a lot of time kicking me (and him) for this sleep position!
When we got up, it was time to open presents. Yes, DHH, there is a Santa Claus, and his gift wrapper is your Grandma Becky! There were SO MANY PRESENTS. It looked like a small child's dream come true! I was feeling under the weather, so I didn't take too many photos. DHH was so overwhelmed by everything, and he spent a lot of time ignoring us and the presents and walking around his "old" toys. We had to coax him into opening gifts and often had to do it for him. He will read this one day and regret his snubbing of the presents, I am sure!
His dad was totally fine helping him open all the gifts. DHH needed a present assistant this year, and his dad fit the bill perfectly!
He got a neat transportation puzzle. He is at the perfect developmental age for plucking the pieces out with their tiny red knobs.
He got a lot of other gifts, too. His Grandpa H shopped for a few of them himself, something that he doesn't often do... shop! Most of his gifts were vehicles or learning type toys.
Here is the view from the couch. See all the gifts? See all the snow? What a pretty scene for present opening!
Both brothers will dislike me for posting this photo, but come on. How many chances does one have to photograph brothers wearing matching camo coats from their dad?
Not nearly enough! I can imagine their mom making them pose for similar photos back when they were little and their Grandma L knitted them special Christmas sweaters or they got matching windbreakers or something. I can totally picture this! I think its a typical American family thing to make their kids pose with new clothing, fresh with price tags. I am glad to carry on the tradition!
Here is my husband's favorite gift. They are a replacement pair for the 4 year old boots he has worn out, but worn daily, and refused to buy for himself. He knew he needed them, but he had a lot of other things he'd prefer to spend that much money on instead! He is very specific about the brand and style of the boots, so luckily men's Carolina workboots are pretty standard and don't change with the fashions.
That's probably because work boots are not fashionable, just functional! Anyway, this was a great sneaky gift from his mother, and I was a co-conspirator, supplying her with the size, style, and idea. It was great to have him be so surprised and happy about a gift like this!
This was a sweet gift of a book and matching teddy bears. Its a sappy sweet book about moms and kids and has a mama bear and her cub to cuddle. Stuffed animals are really interesting to DHH these days, and he loved that the larger bear had velcro (another really interesting thing to him) and could hug the little bear! He sleeps with one of them in his crib these days and hauls the other around the house.
DHH was also really interested in tags to things this year. I think he thinks they are books because he tries to get us to read them to him.
He got a toy from his Uncle Wes. I bet that he had a good time shopping in a toy store... its not every day a 26 year old gets to go into Toys R Us. Actually, its really fun to shop for toys for a small child! That is something I learned this year compared to last.
And here is a fun gift. Its a little pull sled. I've never seen one like this, but my MIL found it at a thrift store. Excellent find! DHH jumped right into it, like it was his own little chair. He was so delighted by it! And the fact that there was snow on the ground this Christmas made it a MORE perfect gift!
I bet he'd like to just sit in this in our house and play driving.
Here is the BEST gift reaction I saw all Christmas. I am happy to have caught it in photograph form! I can still hear her delight as she said, "A
movie camera!!! I really wanted one of these! What a surprised!". My mother in law is so good at taking photos, getting them developed, and storing them in labeled albums. I bet that her family videos will be another way for others to enjoy a cataloged history of the family!
I was fortunate to receive many thoughtful gifts from my in laws house, too. Because I didn't have make up and felt tired, I requested no photos, so I cannot show you any of the gifts I got. I am probably most excited about a Shutterfly gift card, because I plan to make a photo book soon and use some other store credit I have earned from the company to get a really deluxe coffee table style book for a nearly-free price. I also really liked how thoughtful each gift she selected for me was.
My mother in law has given us ornaments for the last three years, and we got them again this year! She orders from
Bronners and everyone gets a neat ornament. This year I got the legend of the panda bear (since I teach at Asian Affairs) and my husband got a pancake. I think this is a really neat tradition, and its probably really common to get an ornament each year, but its not something I have ever experienced, and I love it! One year she found red high top sneakers, the kind her husband wears, and that was a HIT. I am excited to see what next year's ornament will be!
After gifts, there was a lot of organizing and paper/cardboard scrunching, like always. We also enjoyed salads and leftover pizza, and DHH enjoyed being bathed and loved on by his grandma. We determined it would be better to leave that night while the roads were really clear and it was still 32 degrees, rather than wait until morning for fear of ice. We drove the hour drive to my parents without any traffic incident, just enjoying the beauty the four inches of snow gave the countryside.
Oh, and we drove with a JAM PACKED car. And we even left a few things behind! We are certainly lucky to have the luxury of a present filled car, but I can see that there would be something to giving and receiving only gift cards! I think the gift cards would have taken up a shoe box sized space instead of the entire interior of an SUV!
We arrived at my parents' home around 9 PM. The house was calm and dim, with the Christmas tree and a cop show lighting the living room. DHH was exhausted and crabby. He didn't want me to put him down for an instant, which is kind of rare for him since he loves to cuddle with grandparents and explore new places. He went to bed immediately! I slept on the couch until 2 AM because my back hurt and I needed to pull the cinnamon buns out of the fridge to rise for Christmas breakfast!
DHH woke up earlier than I would have liked... about 6 AM. It had and continues to be a rough night for me as far as sleeping goes, so I was happy to have my husband and parents attend to his needs for attention and bonding in the early AM. I showered and came down to find DHH inspecting the gifts.
This is a rocking chair I used as a small child! He really likes having his own space and bucking/rocking in it.
We ate a pre-breakfast meal because it was before 8 AM and we knew my sisters wouldn't be arriving until after 9 AM. It was good. Then we had some time to spend before they arrived, so I gave my mom a gift I had bought her. It was the
Celtic Woman Christmas Concert, as you see in the background of the next photo. Its a PBS special, but we really liked it.
We changed DHH into a festive outfit. He sort of looked like a lumber jack.
My sister and her husband arrived and DHH opened the gift their daughter selected for it. It was a singing dog. He was kind of freaked out by it for awhile, but then he thought it was hysterical.
Actually, he thought most things that day were hysterical. And he drank A LOT of fluids. I think his health was returning!
This little phone brought him joy and is from my grandmother. It is going in the "perfect for doctor appointments and general distractions" pouch in the diaper bag. I cannot overuse the power of a fake phone!
I didn't take too many photos during the present opening, and that is probably because I was opening SO MANY presents.
Here is one of DHH's first gifts. It is a fish lamp. The fish spin about an axis on a wallpaper type system. He is so fascinated by this gift. I think the photos show he is really intent on learning about it. Since Christmas, he is less into learning about it and more into squealing and yelling at the fish as they go by. This is something I never would have bought for him (too much like his infant crib soother and just something I never would have thought he would like). Its good his Nana found it for him since he loves it!
Here is a photo of my dad exploring the Turkish knife my sister's boyfriend got from Turkey for him (he's Turkish and my dad has a special Turkish firearm for it to compliment).
My sister also gave my mom knives. But they are for food prep, not hand to hand combat. And they were probably made in China and shipped to Kohl's.
Last year when my sister's bf was new to our family, we made up this "family tradition" of having to put on every article of clothing you opened up. It was comical because we all gave him jackets. My mom decided to go on with this tradition and put on PJ pants over her clothes. It was all in good fun.
DHH was no better at focusing for gifts this time around, so we just left them under the tree. Later, we looked at them with him. My sister is showing and telling him about the DVD,
Follow That Bird! which was a Douglas house favorite back in the late 80s. Apparently its been digitally remastered for today's toddler.
Later he opened her gift. Its a remake of a toy my husband had as a kid - the Little People Parking Garage. It was a large present.
Later still he opened this little gift. His own pair of shades.
They were a hit.
We got so many great things. My favorites were this jacket...
And also a gift for our daughter from my dad, which I haven't yet taken a photo of, but its the dress he bought for me to wear home from the hospital when I stayed there as a newborn and they just learned I was a girl. I didn't have any feminine baby clothes, so he got it for me. Its white and smocked and very sweet.
After breakfast number 2 and gifting, we lazed around the house.
It was happy lazing though.
We spent the rest of they watching
Home Alone, relaxing, eating a very late lunch, having cheesecake for supper, and just hanging out. We were going to go watch a movie (Husby had a friend in my dad who would watch
true grit with him, since I am a no go on that one), but I wasn't really feeling well and even passed up the free and reliable baby sitting service of my sister. We opted to just stay in. It was nice.
We relaxed and lazed around Sunday morning, too.
Right before we left for home on December 26, my dad got out a gift he intends to give our son one day, just to see.
Its a tiny, lightweight BB gun.
I don't couldn't believe how he looked like a natural with it. He explored it and seemed to totally understand the mechanisms.
No one said, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."
But my husband came in from unloading the car right when this photo was taken, and he said, "Sorry son, you can't shoot a gun that is taller than you are. Its not right."
So I think that will be a whole other Christmas adventure... probably one that is a little less relaxing for us all! More exciting for a few, but definitely less relaxed for me! Can they really shoot their eyes out? That line had to come from somewhere...
It was such a blessed Christmas, especially in terms of family time and generous gifts. It was also nice to have my husband and I both off of work from Friday through Monday. It was enough time to get lazy and comfy and cooped up!
