tom foolery

as i mentioned yesterday - i have yet to do a holiday recap...so here goes it ;-)

for whatever reason i was really struggling this year to get into the spirit of things. i spent the 23rd running around like a chicken with my, head cut off...all on around 3 hours of sleep, thanks to max - see the night prior to this, i decided to make cookies, the kind with little chocolate kisses stuck in the top...well in the words of nikki, max thought they were wittle maxers kisses - and decided to hop up on the dining room table and help himself.

this led to me hysterically screaming and waking up my husband in a panic, waking up the person on call at the vet's office (it was around 1 am), and inadvertently waking up whoever the vet accidentally called when she mis-dialed calling me back. luckily max didn't eat enough to hurt him - just make him off-the-walls-wild until 4 am.

so anyways...i drop max off at the groomers, then spend the next 5 hours going to wal-mart, the post office, sam's club, kroger and the mall. when i finally picked him up that evening the roads were a sheet of ice and i had a butt-puckering drive to my mom's house.

christmas eve we went to my inlaws for lunch and presents - my nephew made it through about 3 gifts before he was done :-) i picked up my granny on the way home and went back to my mom's.

we went to church...and i have to say it...after about 20 minutes of story-reading i was entertaining the notion of sneaking out. i'm glad i stayed, since although we didn't sing silent night (my favorite part), we were treated to some beautiful music - including dulicmer playing and stille nacht.

afterwards, my newly engaged cousin(!!!!) cousin came over with my aunt and uncle and my cousins new FIANCE (!!!) :-)

we spent christmas day with my mom's family. we had tried ethnic themed holiday dinners in the past, however my dad drew the line after we had mexican one year, and requested traditional fare for the next couple of years. to pay homage to him in a gesture he would have appreciated and found the humor in, we had a major fiesta ;-)

obviously things were sad without my dad there...but it was o-kay. not just okay but o-kay...you know, like, it was alright - manageable more than i ever imagined. all i have to do is get through the next two days and a major milestone (1 year without my dad) will have come and gone and I will know that I am 0-kay too.

i am normally a big snooper when it comes to presents - always have been. unwrapping presents by the corner and retaping them after discovering the treasures they held. in recent years, i'm not proud to admit i would snoop in d's emails looking for shipping notices, and even looking through receipts trying to uncover what he might have purchased. he has been working nonstop, and so he had me pick up a few gifts for myself (what good taste in vera bradley satchels and messenger bags he has... *wink* *wink*)

he found out he might have to go work to check on some things, so we exchanged gifts with each other christmas eve morning. my sneaky husband got me good this year...a box was presented to me that i did not buy or wrap. he had ordered it online, had it shipped to work, and took paper to work so i would be none the wiser. i opened it, and found the best thing in the world he could have ever purchased.....i am now the proud mommy of a nikon d60 dslr!!!!!