My Last Post About Christmas, I Swear*

*for 2009

For me this Christmas has been all about starting new traditions for my little family.

On Christmas Eve after dinner we all got to open one gift, new pajamas. Originally I’d planned on having the pajamas be from Santa and we’d put them on on Christmas morning, but Taylor forgot and had mine wrapped and put under the tree. Since Symphony had already seen it he couldn’t exactly re-wrap it in the Santa Claus paper (yes, of course I have two sets of wrapping paper to differentiate between gifts from family and gifts from Santa), so instead I rewrapped Taylor and Sym’s pajamas. We immediately put them all on and I said I wanted a cheesy picture of us all, and the pets, in front of the tree. Shenanigans ensued.

XMas Eve

XMas Eve

XMas Eve

We also decorated gingerbread men to leave out for Santa. Sym’s class decorated them on the last day of school, and her teacher gave me the leftover extras to decorate with the daycare kids. However the last day of school was also my last day of work, and other than Symphony I was only looking after a baby that day.

XMas Eve

I went with the classic Mr Bill-style face and gumdrop buttons (left), Symphony’s is a baby with a star-patterned diaper cover (right), and Taylor repped his heritage by making his (center) mustachioed, wearing a mesh shirt and ruby red slippers (a friend of Dorothy). I’m sure Santa really enjoyed these!

I don’t have any pictures from Christmas Day, which is kind of a bummer but kind of not. You can see how tired I look in the Christmas Eve pictures already, and Christmas Day started early. Really early. Taylor was switching from his work night schedule to his vacation day schedule, which means he woke up at around four that morning. Sym woke up at five and at five-fifteen I heard them talking and it woke me up. I could have sent Symphony back to bed, but she was so excited and happy and cute that I really wanted to hang out with her, so I said “Why don’t we open our stockings now?” Once you’ve opened those you might as well open your other presents from Santa (note: I had wanted the only things from Santa to be little stocking stuffers, as per my childhood family traditions, but my ex insisted on buying Sym all the Playmobils she’d asked Santa for, none of which even fit in her stocking, so Taylor and I ended up buying a bunch more things to fill it. Spoiled!). I think we managed to hold off opening the rest of our gifts until seven-thirty. Needless to say I looked haggardly with mad hair, so I’m not exactly depressed about not having photos to commemorate this.

Symphony, of course, got her face spoiled off. She got her desk (as mentioned in my Ikea post) and handmade-by-me Sailor Senshi dolls (please stay tuned for a post about the blood, sweat and tears I poured into making these over the course of many sleepless nights) from myself and Taylor, arts & craft supplies, a digital video camera (!!!), and a boxed set of the Sailor Moon movies from our extended family and friends, as well as all the Playmobils, some KidRobot toys, Japanese stationary items and tons of candy from Santa. Taylor got a new bathrobe, a sweater I had to go into Armani Exchange to buy (it was like a cologne sauna in there!), a monopod for his camera, The Zombie Survival Guide, a calligraphy set and tons of scarves and mittens, as well as the obligatory KidRobots and candy. I got enormous sweatpants that make me look like an elephant but I love them, a super-cool miniature LED chandelier, a Dremel (haha) and 350 million attachments and accessories for it, and you guessed it, KidRobots and candy. I also got a box Sym put together for me of some of her favorite little toys and crystals- she is the sweetest kid I know, seriously.

The rest of Christmas Day was spent napping, eating junk and watching movies. Taylor made pancakes and reverse-mimosas (regular white wine + Orangina) for breakfast. Symphony and I watched all three Sailor Moon movies and Taylor fell asleep at four, prompting me to scrap making Christmas dinner (we’ll have it today instead). We kept drinking the reverse-mimosas, and at some point we ran out of Orangina and started using pomegranate Italian soda instead. After Symphony went to bed Taylor and I had our Second Annual Christmas Day Viewing of the Sex and the City Movie. A little history: last year, we were supposed to spend Christmas day on a Maui beach, relaxed, tanned and newlywed. Thanks to six snowstorms and a cancelled flight, instead we spent it at home alone, petless, kidless, presentless and definitely not married, daring each other to watch a series of increasingly terrible films, the worst of which was SatC. I think this year it was even worse than I’d remembered!

5 Replies to “My Last Post About Christmas, I Swear*”

  1. Tani… when Candace and Clay were small, we also had pjs. the gift they were allowed to open before Xmas. Clay always went for the biggest box and one with noise so I had to come up with inventive ways of wrapping the pjs. Your pics were great . Do you think that I could get the one with the three of you [ 2nd or 3rd one] . Are you looking for more decorations for your tree or are you changing the decor next year?? Sounded like everyone had a great Christmas and got lots of goodies. Our Christmas was quiet in the morning but as soon as Erik arrived things began to hum. Erik did very well and kept going til it was time to go home.. Thank you for up-dates on your blog. I really enjoy reading them. xoxo

    1. I didn’t even give Symphony a choice about which gift she could open because I KNEW she’d pick the two huge boxes her desk was in. I’m sticking with the red/green/silver/black Christmas tree theme for now, although I need more lights because the strands keep blowing out. Are you coming downtown this week? Let me know and I’ll get that picture printed for you, although this one:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/simian/4212627684/
      has a more classic Symmie photo face, haha.

    1. Nothing concrete- Clay’s bringing her home in the morning and then ??? Shopping maybe? I do have a giftcard to use (thank you btw).

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