A Christmas Catch-Up

Well, 2008 has come and gone and I'm just amazed at how quickly time has passed. Our first Christmas in our new home was lovely. My father, mother, and brother-in-law drove down from Chicago to spend "our Christmas" with us. Today, is their Christmas (according to the Serbian Orthodox calendar) which is about 2 weeks behind our calendar in relation to Christmas, New Years, and Easter. Cool for me because a) I get to take advantage of all the seasonal sales, and b) who wouldn't love to celebrate 2 Christmas'?

Here's our first Christmas tree in the new home:

We actually bought tons! of presents for the in-laws and tricked them into thinking that they only had 2 each, which I'll get to in just a moment.

This year, we actually bought and stuffed stockings. I think I had more fun buying stuff for the stockings than I did for anything else. My in-laws have never had a stocking before so they were so very excited to wake up on Christmas morning and find a stocking with their name in it with all kinds of personalized goodies. It was like watching little kids just dive into their presents!

I actually had to move the stockings over to the other side of the room because the bevelled edge on the mantle made the stocking holders flip over when the stockings were full.

We opened all the presents under the tree and got lots of great stuff but I've posted two of my favorites. For the last 10 years, Alex's family has been collecting the state quarters for us to put into the collection board. I never thought about collecting these coins before but when I saw the complete collection I got so excited!

Someday, I'll get a normal smile out of my husband. But anyway, on to my second favorite present. I really like nativities but they have to be cute, or unique, or even whimsical. I have 6 different ones so far. The very last box that I opened contained the 4 piece shepperd and animal set to the Willow Tree Nativity that I have been slowly collecting over the years.

The only thing that is missing is the creche and an ox and a goat. Hopefully, next year it will be complete. Then I can move on to some other ones that I've been eyeing for a while.

So after all the presents were opened under the tree, I hurried down the hall to bring back the "real" presents that I had stacked in a huge laundry basket. A little side story...my family does the Christmas list thing. You submit a list of 10 or 15 things and then everyone picks from the list. This way you get what you wanted and you don't have to fake excitement over an ugly sweater vest with matching pants from Aunt June or have to brave the lines the next day to return it. Or if you don't really like the items on the list, at least it gives you an idea what kind of stuff that person likes. So I call up my little bro and ask him what we should get them for Christmas. He comes up with nothing and my husbands ideas for them were a little less than exciting (ties and a pen set-yikes!). So I come up with a better plan. Z is going off to college in August so why not give him a package of emergency items that he'll need but nobody thinks of buying. And the parents will now truly have an empty nest, so why not an "Empty Nest" package. This is what I pulled out in the laundry basket.

We handed Z's presents to him first, because Mom & Dad's just wouldn't make as much sense. Alex had to explain why each one was important and even passed on a little brotherly wisdom/advise. Here' what we gave him (all individually wrapped): a big bath towel, a laundry hamper, 10 clothes hangers, a hoodie, laundry detergent, a case of Top Ramen,  a medicine cabinet all in sample sizes (deodorant, tooth brush, tooth paste, Listerine, shampoo, razor, shaving cream, vitamins, energy drinks, aspirin, cold medicine, and #2 pencils...again all individually wrapped) in a Sterilite container, and a $25 American Express card to use when money is tight and he's hungry. Alex got really involved in this present and it was so sweet to see how caring and loving he was about what his little brother "needed".

Next came Mom & Dad. I made them a scrapbook card called "My Empty Nest Check-List" and as they read off each number they unwrapped the presents that went with it. This is what they got:

1. Cry! (a box of tissue)

2. Celebrate! (individual bottles of champagne)

3. Relax! (a box of loose-leaf tea, 2 tea infusers, 2 tea mugs, and a magazine about the Caribbean)

4. Hobbies! (a do-it-yourself home repair book, a book on gardening with some flowers to plant, and a book on European wine)

5. Date, again! (the movie "The Red Violin", popcorn, raisinettes, a 4-pack of Coke, a blanket to snuggle under, a Blockbuster gift card, and a copy of "The Love Dare" for each of them)

I had such a great time giving them all these gifts and it was really nice to spend some time with my extended family.  The weather was kind of strange while they were here so we didn't drive around much, but we did get in a little Phase 10 time and even introduced them to Apples to Apples which was absolutely hilarious! It was really nice to have family visit and I hope it won't be long before we have some more guests to entertain.