Christmas

It's hard to believe how quickly our holiday visit to Tennessee went by.  The week of Christmas, before we left California, I'd felt like I was getting sick but I managed to fight through it and got finished at Upland on the 23rd.  That night, Ramy's sister Myrna and her family took us to the airport after a nice little dinner with all of us together.  I'd had a bit of a sore throat, so my voice was scratchy.  Somehow between the time we got through security and boarded the plane, I completely lost my voice.  I joked that it must be Ramy's Christmas miracle, because I had no voice until a couple of days after christmas.  The only other thing that was eventful was that I got to see Lady Gaga in the airport, in all her bizarre, only partially-clad glory.  I didn't recognize her at first and thought she must be a porn star, from the way she was dressed.  Yet another brush with a celebrity I care nothing about.  We had two great flights and arrived bright and early in Nashville and then were at the Cracker Barrel enjoying breakfast by 9:30 a.m.  It was quite a tiring, hectic day getting ready for all the big Christmas Eve events, and I didn't get to do as much decoration on the wrapping as I would have liked or as much baking as I'd have liked.  Nonetheless, it was a great, fun day, and Rebecca was very excited!

We put out all kinds of treats for Santa and his helpers.  We made chocolate chip cookies for Santa and left them for him with some chocolate milk and set out a snack of cheese for Santa Mouse. 

We also made up a batch of reindeer food for Santa's reindeer, with a special snack of carrots for Rudolph.

On Christmas Eve evening, we went to candlelight communion at my mom's church.  Then we went on to Aunt Margaret's house for our annual family gathering.  Everyone in the family contributed several dishes of good food, so it wasn't quite as stressful for Aunt Margaret as it has been in years past.  We had lots of food - turkey, ham, barbecue, dressing, hashbrown casserole, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, bread, deviled eggs, and the most important - the caramel and strawberry cakes.  After dinner, we opened gifts, and as usual, there were boxes and ribbons and wrapping paper flying everywhere.  Rebecca exclaimed over each and every gift.

Santa couldn't come until all children were fast asleep, so we had to make an early (well, 10 p.m.) getaway from Aunt Margaret's house to get back to Grammy's.   Santa must have been exhausted, because our little girl was so excited that she didn't fall asleep until 1:30 a.m.!  Ramy went in around 11:00 to lay down with her in hopes that she might more easily fall asleep.  Around midnight, I went in and found that she was still wide awake and watching the Grinch on tv but that he was fast asleep!  Somehow Santa was finally able to get down the chimney and all the gifts set up.  Mercifully, Rebecca slept in a bit (9:00 a.m.)!  She woke up ready to discover all the wonders of Christmas....and there were many!  I have video of her first sight of the tree and gifts that I hope to upload soon.

Santa Mouse had left his small gifts tied to the Christmas tree.

The stockings were all filled and waiting on us.

We had so many presents that we ended up waiting until the next day to finish opening all the gifts!  After our Christmas morning first round of gifts, we had a wonderful brunch and then took a refreshing nap before preparing for Christmas night dinner.  I don't think I've ever been quite as tired as I was that night, but it was well worth it to see the look of wonder on Rebecca's face! 

I'll be posting a collage of pictures from Christmas very soon too!