Christmas 2008

We seem to be having a trend of "memorable" Christmas's and this one was no different. Three our of our last 6 Christmas's have been spent in what I affectionately refer to as "limbo-land." We seem to always be finding ourselves living in transit or in temporary situations around the holidays. Every time this happens, I make Ryan swear to me we will not move in the fall ever again. But, some things are out of our control. We make the most of it though. It is hard being without our stuff and our own decorations but this year, we did things Charlie Brown style. The majority of our tree decorations are homemade. We had popcorn string as well as fruit loop string. There were homemade snowflakes and other decorations. It was fun making them together as a family. The kids attention span did not last long enough to even decorate 2 feet of tree but Ryan and I had a good time finishing them up on our own. The kids fell right to sleep while we were up late Christmas Eve night putting together things for Santa. It was challenging putting toys together while getting yelled at and the walls pounded on by the neighbors for being too noisy. Ahh, the joys of apartment life.

The kids were a bit spoiled by their grandparents. The major gifts they got from us was a Nintendo DS for Kutter and a Princess car for Payton. Payton was disappointed it was not the Barbie car. (The princess car was on special for $100 cheaper) We tried to convince her that it was a princess car for a princess. She bought it, for now. Santa brought Kutter some Star Wars stuffed animals while he brought Payton some Barbie dolls and accessories. (I have officially become a sell-out) Maggie got a few fun toys which she loved all of them. She is the first of our kids that actually played with the toys at Christmas instead of the boxes or wrapping paper.

Ryan was spoiled with a new TV for the apartment. We were going NUTSO without one. He actually got that present about a week early. He also got an iPod so we could get all his lame-o songs off mine. Ha ha ha. He spoiled me with a new Kitchen Aide mixer since mine was "lost" on our last move. I also got a pair of much wanted earrings and some pampering items. He always takes such good care of me.

For Christmas breakfast, we headed over to the Barnes' for some Eggs Benedict. This was my first experience with eggs benedict and I am officially hooked. It was the yummiest stuff ever! We then went home and napped and played with toys. We went back over to the Barnes' for a combined Christmas dinner. We had ham and potatoes and all the fix ens. It was very, very, very tasty.

It is hard being so far away from family and friends at such a significant time of year but we made the most of it. All things considered, it was a pretty dang Merry Christmas!!