Christmas Belated

I really need to get a blog up about Christmas. I don't want the kids reading this in years to come and wondering whatever happened to Christmas 2012. This year our Christmas was very much about family. We were so lucky that so many of our dear family made the trek to San Diego to spend Christmas in the slightly warmer than Canada weather.

We had so much fun and did so many things that it really can't be captured in one blog post (without making that blog post way too long and therefore unreadable). Grandma Barbie and Poppa Mike arrived on Christmas Eve, as if it isn't already exciting enough for the kids! They were so jazzed up. We met them at the airport and then promptly nearly lost them due to Poppa Mike's malfunctioning GPS. But we all made it back to the house in time to celebrate Christmas Eve San Diego style - on the beach, catching the sunset (even if it wasn't all that warm).

Then we returned home for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Mulligatawny soup and Chocolate Fondue. Teia, our techno-kid, was busy tracking Santa's progress around the world on the NORAD site. Love that pilots in Baggotville, PQ are actually featured on there, yay Canada!

Then the stockings were hung, cookies, egg nog and carrots laid out and kidlets put to bed. I wonder if this is the last year that we'll get kids who sleep through the night. If they have inherited my Christmas Eve genes then we're in for it. I didn't sleep through the night until I was 21. I wonder if I am beginning my second childhood of Christmas tossing and turning. The kids are old enough now that they actually have things that they are wishing for and hoping Santa will leave for them; Teia: a pink bike with black tires and a tiny, weeny, little, tiny pink cat. Kai: a new music lion and a slinky bus with an airplane. Being in the know with Santa as us parental types are, it is hard not to get excited anticipating their reactions on Christmas morning when they open things expected and hoped for and other unanticipated but equally wonderful surprises.   

Present opening took all day, as usual. I like it that the kids aren't the "rip and tear" types, at least not yet. They like to savor each gift and play with it before moving onto the next. The kids continue to develop their own unique personalities, whether it be for tree decorating or gift opening. Kai opened his music lion and slinky bus and was pretty much good for the day. He enjoyed his other gifts but took his  time getting round to them b/c he was so smitten with the first two he opened. 

Teia, on the other hand, just loved this whole Christmas-business so much she didn't want it to ever end. For days afterward, she would wrap her arms around my neck sweetly, bring her little cherub face close to mine, gaze into my eyes and whisper seriously "Mommy, can I have another present?" Now that she realizes it really is all over, she "wraps" "presents" all the time and insists that some sort of gift giving game happens pretty much everyday. 

Teia's pink bike with black tires came equipped with a Meow seat. Good thinking Santa! The very easily misplaced teeny, weeny, little, tiny pink cat - not such good thinking. The bike got tested out right away, one of the perks of living in San Diego.

Uncle Meeko and Auntie Aynsley arrived on Christmas Day which was a wonderful present for all of us. 

They were just in time for a run on the beach with Kai and Christmas Dinner.

So many more pictures and stories to share. Another day, another blogstory. But I will share that I discovered the salve for post-Christmas blues (you know, when you have to pack all the decorations away and throw the tree out): Leave it all up WAY too long.