Happy Birthday Jesus and Me

Its almost time for the after-holiday blues.  Wren's birthday is over, Christmas is over, my birthday is over and everyone knows that New Year doesn't really exist for people with kids (who can get a good babysitter on New Year's Eve and even if they could, who would want to go out and stay up late rather than sleep?)   So really, for me, 2012 has begun and if I can say so - I have high hopes!   It better be a good year.  I am holding out for good weather, fewer wars, fewer calamities, good cardiology appointments, a pet that stops peeing on the carpet and health for my friends and family.

But first, the recap of Holiday 2011:

Christmas in Seattle was windy, so windy that the lighted reindeer ceased swaying his head with squeaky regularity and fell right over on the lawn.  The holiday lights swayed mightily, so that verily, they pulled the 24 hour timer off the porch ceiling and left it hanging by a black cable.  Remarkably, they kept shining in the spirit of fossil fuels and the human spirit and all things bright and festive. 

The reindeer fell under the Christmas wind.

There were the usual small obstacles and setbacks during Christmas presents.  Toys were restrained with twist ties and hard plastic shells.  The scissors became lost in the pile of wrapping.  My attempt to write down Who gave us What failed somewhere after the 4th gift and the leg of Wren's new Adventure Time Finn figure broke off due to a manufacturing defect and over-eager handling (by Wren's mother).

Then there were the peculiar gifts.  The necessary debate about the chocolate picture of a pirate ship with silver cannon balls.  Was it a game or a picture?  Should it be eaten or preserved (A. Eaten). 

Wren's chocolate ship (which is no more).  His weird expression
is his attempt to look normal for a photograph.  Wren says "that expression
means that I am kind of neutral." 

The electric hamsters were popular, especially the one that came with a scorpion tank which shot green missiles at Beezle.

Joshua complained he had too many gifts (because he bought himself some).

For the first time in his life, Frost wanted order to appreciate gifts and asked that we open "one at a time" but Wren rejected the notion and kept saying "is there one for me?"   Whenever he received a gift he liked (and he liked almost all of them very much), he would ask "Who gave this to me" and then say "I LOVE you SO MUCH!"

Is this for me?  Is this one?

Frost, opening a gift Wren wrapped. 
It contained some of Wren's Playmobil repacked in something
from Amazon.   Frost acted pleased even though
they were his toys before Wren inherited them.

Wren, opening the Aquaplay which (a flood revealed)
is probably best suited to summer outdoor play.

Frost hands out gifts one at a time for a short period.

Frost before opening gifts.

Wren's favorite gifts were the Thundercats sword, some Squinkies while Frost diplomatically "liked a lot of things."   If pressed, he admitted his favorite present overall was all of them.

Josh made gingerbeer for breakfast.

As with all good Grown-ups, Joshua bought the family the gift he wanted to receive.  It was an Apple TV.   Unfortunately, on Christmas Day the apple TV didn't work because it lacked an HDMI cable.  Lame.   It is now working.  Joshua and I have decided to cancel our Comcast Cable and go to shows on demand and free-to-air TV.   After years and years of cable we are going to have an antenna again!

On Christmas Day itself, the boys got up at 7.20am which was pretty okay.  Josh woke up about the same time which meant I had to get up too.

Beezle wishes Josh "Happy Christmas"
"We say MERRY CHRISTMAS in America, Mom"
shout the boys. "MERRY Christmas"

Among the most contentious gifts was a jelly bean dispenser I bought at the Thrift Store and refilled from Costco.  It dispenses Jelly Beans with the twist of a knob but the manual said you could set it to only dispense with a quarter (money).   After a short but spirited debate with the boys who felt it was unfair to give them a gift and then make them spend money to use it, and a shorter sociological study in which I observed that unrestricted jelly-bean access lead to Jelly Beans before breakfast, for breakfast and after breakfast... etc Josh and I decided to set it to MONEY MODE.  After half an hour of googling the coin mechanisms for gumball machines and trying to make the metal blade fit the metal cog Josh said:

"This thing is broken.  They threw it out because it is b-r-o-k-e-n"

He worked on in for another half hour with pliers and told me it was fixed but it wasn't and then he said something impolite and went to play Minecraft or watch Soccer or something silent and intense that did not involve Jelly Beans.

I put the Jelly Bean machine on the top shelf in the pantry but this morning it had mysteriously returned to the kitchen counter.

This is all to show that you should really only give your family the presents that you want to live with, not the ones they want.

I shall try and do better next year but overall it was a very happy Christmas, everyone felt loved and appreciated, Joshua went back to sleep on the couch and we didn't kill any pigs or animals for our dinner.

A good holiday for a good start to 2012.