The whirlwind of pre-Christmas, Christmas and birthday celebrations has me a bit turned around…I think today is Wednesday, but I may have to consult the calendar again.

 Although we’d kept busy with various other activities earlier in the month including a radio show version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” at the Taproot Theatre, a couple of movies and birthday celebrations for friends,  we had quite the lead in to the big day starting with Wednesday.  The holiday had snuck up on me again and I think Keven was in Christmas shopping denial.  So as Christmas was sneaking up on us, the realization that we were jam packed with activities the remaining days/evenings, we decided to venture out into the mall to wrap up the shopping that wasn’t accomplished online.  Squid was going to the Nutcracker with family on the weekend and needed a dress for that as well.  Let me tell you, we were on a mission!  We not only found the perfect dress in less than a half hour (!!), but she also found the perfect gift for Keven.  Santa pictures were a breeze and we were outta there…mission accomplished.  Thursday night we had tickets for Xmas Catechism which was very funny (I still think Late Nite Catechism is funnier), followed by the Nutcracker on Friday night in Bellevue with friends.  Saturday we did more shopping (I think), went to the movies and early dinner with Matt, did more shopping, then went to a birthday bowling party for Sarah at the Garage in capitol hill.  Gotta love a bowling alley with a minimum age requirement!  The fries were a spitting image of Dick’s, very good margaritas which, upon each consumption, seemed to improve our games (ok, maybe just mine) or at least our enjoyment of them! LOL!! Ü  Sunday was tripping out in the monsoon to Central Market, Redmond Towne Center and BellSquare for more last minute gifts and Cinnabon, followed by gift dropping at the wrong house, and dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Woodinville that made me a hotter-than-hot mexican prawn dish, and then home for laundry duty, Christmas movies and gift wrapping.  Keven was quick but made fun of the fact that my wrappings took somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-4.5 hours and that only included the people we were seeing on Christmas, not to mention that I was wrapping for Santa too!!

Christmas day included various travelling gatherings with Keven’s sister-in-law’s family.  They very graciously included Squid and me in their festivities.  At one point very early in the day we discovered that one of Squid’s friends from last year is the nephew of Keven’s sister-in-law (Terri)…<<side note: these kids who were such good friends, spent most of that evening and the following hanging out together and barely speaking to each other…was quite funny to watch!>>  Anyway, Terri’s sister Jen, put on quite an impressive spread for breakfast.  Keven and I left between between breakfast and gift opening to pick up Squid at her dad’s, then returned for gifts and they were all still going strong!  We headed back for home a little later than expected, did gifts at our house, then left for dinner at Matt and Chris’ house.  Talk about another phenomenal spread!!  Keep in mind too that they’d been out of power up until just a few days before Christmas!  They had company from out of town as well and had put everyone to work prepping for this incredible meal.  Carol spent 3 hours grilling vegetables on a teeny, one person, George Foreman grill, for how many, 30+ people, I’d guess.   Anyway, everything turned out great and everyone had a very enjoyable holiday.

A very heartfelt thank you to Jen and Michael, Matt and Chris, and the rest of the family for welcoming us with such warmth and enthusiasm not only into your homes, but into your family(ies) on such an important and crazy holiday!

Tuesday was Erik’s birthday, so we gathered again with the clan at Margo’s house.  Again the dinner was exceptionally good, the company just as entertaining as the day before, and we stayed even later!  Happy birthday again, Erik!! 

We rolled home and were in bed around 2:30am.  Keven had an early morning and mine was unexpectedly earlier too.  One of the kids had talked about being up sick Christmas night throwing up, thinking it was all the junk food he’d eaten during the day…well apparently, he was wrong.  Squid was up at  5-something am today puking her guts out too.  Luckily that was short lived, but threw off the day quite a bit.  Squid had plans to go hang with Kim and her kids today, so being sick ruled that out.  That and the fact that Kim’s downstairs of her house was flooding again.  She’d had unexpected flooding during the last windstorm and the entire downstairs of her house was damaged!  So to have it again today but from a different source was not a welcome thing.

Anyhoo, I think that brings you up to speed on Christmas.  Email me for more specific detail if you’d like…I don’t think I left much out though!!   Hope yours was as fun and enjoyable as ours was!!  What’s on the agenda for New Year’s?