Christmas Day

       Okay, well obviously, I didn't write this post yesterday, as I'd hoped. I've been moving really slowly the past 2 days, so I blame that. I'm trying to figure out how to best cover everything that happened on Christmas Day... and I'm thinking that a couple photo collages along with a few stories might be the best option.
        So, Christmas morning didn't start out the greatest for us. We were very definitely running late because I'd gotten the cinnamon rolls started later than I should have, and Nathaniel was having some health issues that were slowing him down, and the main reason, was Jessica's meltdown when I was making her wait for Nathaniel to finish eating before touching the presents. Yes, we were going to breakfast/brunch at Melindae's later, but we'd been up early enough (for each of us individually) that we needed something before then. So Jessica got a timeout in her room for about 5-10 minutes, and then we got to talk to her and explain why we were waiting and that getting presents wasn't everything and she needed to wait. Then things went well....
So, here are some collages, and I'll try to remember any stories to go along with the pictures, and we'll see how the rest of the post goes. ;)

       Well, I suppose, first story to go with is that Nathaniel gave me a new camera, and that was THE first gift opened, so I actually have a lot of pictures from Christmas, because I had a decent camera to play with.  He (as he puts it) "only" gave me 2 gifts, but they were a new camera, and a serger!!!!!! SO EXCITED!!! For those of you who may not be familiar with the terminology, a serger is a special type of sewing machine that sews, seals the seam, and clips it all at the same time (as opposed to having to go over each seam 3 times. In other words, sewing clothes has just gotten almost 3 times faster! And, he got my mom's help, so I ended up with a serger that is the exact same one she has, which means not only am I slightly familiar with it, but I have someone I can ask about it, and she'll know, rather than us needing to figure it out.
      After we opened our Christmas, we headed over to Melindae's house for brunch and McBride family gifts. We ended up about an hour and a half later than we'd agreed to show up, but at least we'd sent a message on ahead, when we realized we'd be late. (It's just unfortunate that their phone wasn't working for some reason and they didn't get it.) So... now the pictures from there.

 

      So, 2 main stories I can remember from there... Jessica seemed to LOVE Joe's snake. She saw it moving up in its cage, and pointed at it and was very excited, and wanted to get closer to look at it. She would very rarely let us put her down, so that she could watch the snake. She also asked at one point to put her finger in the snake's mouth. Obviously we said "no" to that one. The other story has to do with the gifts I gave Oscar and Carley. I had individual gifts for them (french truffles for Oscar, home-made reusable bags for Carley) and then a joint gift of homemade jam. After Carley had opened the joint gift, Oscar admitted to being slightly disappointed with the chocolates. When he had felt the weight, he had been hoping for some of my jam, so when it was the chocolates it was a little disappointing. So, needless to say, he was very excited when they did actually get some jam. 

       From Melindae's house we went basically straight to my parents' house. Unfortunately I don't have nearly as many pictures from there, because as the day went on, I proceeded to slowly (or maybe not so slowly) become non-functional. My parents spoiled us yet again with movies, books, games, and a few other things. My goodness, we are so very blessed. We also ended up being there at the same time as everyone else, so that was also fun. Unfortunately, by the time we left, I was basically having a meltdown, because I had completely spaced anything involving dinner, and it was only 5pm, but my parents had another stop, and... it was just bad. So, my wonderful husband texted Oscar, and asked if they would mind some company for dinner. He asked Kim (as that is where they are staying) and she agreed that we could come over, so that is what we did. We spent the rest of the evening just having a nice chill evening with Oscar and Carley. We even got Jessica to sleep on the couch, so we were able to stay there a little longer (though we were home by about 10pm.)  So, there are a few more pictures, but that was our Christmas Day.