"G" It's Christmas!

Since Toby initially had to work all through the holiday (he subsequently got Christmas day off when a young single co-worker wanted to work that day for the extra money), my parents (the Gs), sister and BIL came down to spend the holiday with us. Too bad they had to stay at a hotel. I guess they could have slept on the couch and the blow-up mattress in a family-style slumber party. Whatever.

I told Natty they were coming and she got excited. "I'm going to be wowdy (rowdy) when they get here," she said." "You a-are? I said." "Yeah, I'm going to play with Uncle Jay!" and putting her hand to her forehead, said, "And Aunt Jess is going to give me like a thousand kisses!"

So after the fam arrived on Christmas eve, as is our tradition, we got to open one present - our Jammies! Here's a pic of the girls in theirs: (Julsie refused to put her pants on)

So, we chit-chat, have some snacks, etc. Shortly after they head to the hotel, I put the kids to bed and daddy gets home from work. Of course, both daddy and the girls are dying to see each other. There's just too much excitement in the air. Everyone gets all worked-up again and admittedly, I start to get irritated. I mean, Santa can't come unless you're asleep! So finally, I put the kids to bed and who else is in bed? John! I about flipped. I think the pressure of the holiday was getting to me. "What do you think you're doing?" I said. "Trying to sleep in the same bed as my wife on Christmas Eve." Ooooh. I felt low. He hurt his back again and had been sleeping on the couch all week. Once again, my fiery temper is cooled by his calm response.

Instead of staying up to finish, I hopped in bed too. I got up with Jules at 4:30am and stayed up to finish prep. John got up around 5. Well, not really. As I'm rocking Jules back to sleep, I see the girls' door slowly open. Was he peaking in to see if I was in there? No. He was crawling on the floor and pushing the door open with his head. He was looking for help. Remember I mentioned his back? Well, sleeping in our bed really "did him in" and he was on the floor for about 20 minutes before I could manage to help him up. (Nicely, he pretended like my yelling at him the night before never happened.)

Around 8, he couldn't wait any longer and woke the girls up. Nat is her daddy's baby and was like a total zombie for a while, despite the pile of presents before her. They had a great time opening their gifts and hanging out with my family all Christmas and the next day. (I think Uncle Jay needed a good nap after playing so much).


As a post-script, Toby, for once, was completely surprised (and thrilled) by one of his gifts - a leatherman from my parents. I too was totally caught off-guard with my gifts and felt like a little kid again. I thought I was way past that, but I guess not =)