Life: Idiotropic

Normally I awake with giggles and laughter followed by a parade of elephants up the stairs and the excited exclamations of, "Santa's been here! He brought me a ___! Can we open our presents now???!?!??!!!" A series of giggles and hopping up and down completes the usual dance then I roll over, beg for 2 more minutes, and eventually succumb to the holiday joy and stumble down the stairs.

This year I awoke with the giggles and laughter followed by "Daddy, can we open our stockings??" and "Crinkle, rip, tear." then "Look what I got!" No "two more minutes" for me. I was lightening down those stairs to see what was going on. No opening stockings without me!! After all, I worked hard wrapping and filling. So grumpy old mom breaks in with camera and watches the excitement, then begs for 5 minutes to at least brush my teeth and put the cinnamon rolls in the oven.

And the present opening marathon began. Elise was thrilled because on the same night that Santa brought a twin for her lost twin doll, her mommy found the twin that had been lost in the move (too smart for my own good, I packed them together). Add to that two fancy dresses with matching doll dresses and now she can be fancy and both her dolls can be fancy too.

Tiara got boots and gift certificates and lots of fuzzy socks - her footwear fav. Arianna loved her new dresses and scarf and the littlest pet shop stuff from Santa. Luci got a twin lion for her old special lion and was ecstatic. Now she has a pride.

Kirk got a telescope which he immediately opened up, put together, and hauled up to the balcony to try out. And I got a beautiful gold bracelet that I've hoped for for years.

Homemade cinnamon rolls with orange cream cheese frosting and our morning is off to a great start.

Relaxation, laundry, cleaning, marathon packing, a traditional ham dinner, then to friend's house for dessert. Then home and packing creatively because how in the world can we fit 6 people and luggage for 12 days into a Citroen Picasso?

And that was Christmas. As quickly gone as it came, but fun and nice. Memorable. And today there were no fires and no bites. No blood or bandaging. Just one very nasty burn on my arm that would end up being a conversation piece among my little family for the next week. What's the tally now? Yeah, up to 5 burns. It's not me, it's the oven. Tiny thing, bad height.

Anyway... as they say in Valencia: Bon Nadal! Merry Christmas everyone. Today is the first day of the 12 days. Let's celebrate!


MORE PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=174370&id=674507268&l=efc85c7eaa