What a holiday!

Jeremy worked on Christmas Eve, so I spent the day trying (in vain) to keep the Kristmas Krazy Kids in line. We baked some cookies for Santa, delivered some presents to neighborhood friends, and got ready to head over to my in-laws for Xmas Eve dinner and gifts.

We've had a lot of weather around here and there was a lot of icy snow on top of my car. So, I was standing on the driver's side of the minivan next to Sebastian's seat and holding the frame between the front door and the sliding door while I cleaned the snow off the roof. (You may see where this is headed.) Jeremy gets into the driver's seat and slams his door closed right on my hand! My scream echoed through the neighborhood as he looked up to see my disembodied fingers inside the car. Lucky for me, I was just a little dented--nothing broken and less bruising and swelling than expected. Nevertheless, it was not the best start to our trip.

The visit was nice. We all got snowshoes, and I got a canning pot so I can stop improvising with my stock pot. But I left my purse at their house with my wallet and camera inside. This we didn't discover until after we got home and were dealing with the fact that...

Dorian threw up all over himself right before we arrived, covering his coat, his Christmas jammies and his carseat in puke. It's not a holiday without a little vomit management. He was devastated that he couldn't wear the pajamas, but they were washed and dried for him the next morning so all was well.

And probably the highlight of my day was this scene of Dorian opening his socks. I have never heard a child so happily exclaim, "Socks! I got socks!"

After the Xmas bomb exploded all over the dining room, we went outside to try out the snowshoes and hang up the new bird feeder. All the rain the day before made the mountains of powder more malleable, so we could make snowmen. The boys used the snowman kit for theirs, and I made 2 little ones with some pine needles and dried chrysanthemums.

Then we went to lunch where I finally got to try Peking duck. Every year I say I want to have it, and every year I don't. So it was very exciting (and delicious) to fulfill my dream of duck for Xmas. But more exciting was when I looked over at Sebastian and one of his bottom teeth looked crooked. I checked, and sure enough, it and its neighbor were loose!

Dorian is almost out of diapers and Sebastian's losing his teeth! What the hell?