What a holiday!

I still have tons of pictures to upload so that will have to be another post. Our weekend started with a trip to the ER for Mark on the 23rd. He was slicing an avocado but hit a hard spot. The avocado gave and the knife went into his finger at the second knuckle to the ligament. We couldn't stop the bleeding so he drove himself to the ER for stitches. 3 stitches and a tetanus shot later, he met us for dinner out with his parents, brother and family, and his great-aunt and her husband. Nico is sick and of course, it really kicked in that night so he was not in the mood to sit for anything so we took turns chasing him. His great-aunt has been going through her bookcases lately and giving us some of her old children's books that she and Mark's grandfather read growing up. I love getting these family treasures to share with my children. One of the books this time was one of her old texts from her classroom on the CA gold rush written by the State Dept of Education. I'm about to start CA history with Matthew so the timing could not be more fortuitous. She also surprised us with a Christmas present. We don't normally exchange with her and we were very surprised to open it and find a beautiful quilted table runner and 6 matching placemats. Someone at her church had made them and they are just wonderful.

Christmas Eve found us trying to get a few last minute things done and almost succeeding. LOL We went to dinner at the Dim Sum King with Mark's parents, his brother and family, and a few of his mom's friends. Nico decided that sleeping truly was overrated as he went from 7:30a to 6:30p before taking his nap. He fell asleep in my arms while we made a quick stop at home to pick up gifts before going over to Mark's parent's house. He slept through most of the opening frenzy but woke up in time to find Jelly Belly's and partake of those. LOL The boys got Amazon gift cards so while not what Nico was really wanting, the other boys were quite happy. We did some online shopping today and just need to go get Matthew's present elsewhere. I bought his GC off him as the one thing he decided he really, really wanted (the one thing on his list I was dreading him getting *sigh*) was $35 cheaper if bought at TRU or Target so we'll do that this week sometime hopefully.

BIL and SIL surprised us with a present for us as well as buying nicely for the boys. Christopher managed to read all 3 new manga they got him 2xs while we were still there and Jonathan is really looking forward to playing his new game (just need to find table room first LOL) from them as well. Mark and I are still trying to figure out the placement of teams on the NHL Monopoly board.

Next morning Santa visited and left each of the boys and the parents exactly what they had asked for (ok, the reasonable requests, he still won't leave me child dose Valium for Nico *sigh*). The boys tore into their presents under the tree and the wrapping paper was flying. I managed a few pics but it was quite the frenzy. LOL After the wrapping paper settled from their antics, it was declared by all to be the best Christmas ever and I was rated the best mommy ever as two boys started heeling through the living room on their new shoes, another acknowledged this with a grunt from deep in some manga, and a small squeal of delight was heard along with the voom voom noises in the corner.

Mark managed to surprise and spoil the heck out of me. In addition to a few cooking items and some books from my wish list, he got me a book on posing for portraits, tips for using all the features on my camera, and .... a backdrop frame & 2 tripods in a fabulous carrying case! The only thing he said about it all was that he was sorry that the posing book didn't have information on babies. I'm so very, very thankful to have such a wonderful supportive husband who is willing to go to such lengths to help me work towards my dreams.

After breakfast, we finished up some more last minute gifts (nothing like realizing, oops, I was supposed to give that to them yesterday), dropped them off, and headed up to my dad's for the rest of the day. The boys had a great time hanging out with Jack and loved their books and Matthew his CD. Nico, not feeling well, was a true terror and lived up to his nickname of "Nico the Destroyer". He managed to break or help to break a couple of Jack's stocking stuffers and got his hand on some of Jack's candy and helped make that disappear as well. *sigh* Jack seemed to like his new nerf stuff (it remains to be seen if Elaine is going to kill me for it or not as I'm not sure how obnoxious it's going to be).

Mike showed up after work with Rita. He and Mark had some sort of one upsmanship thing going with the presents between them but it left them with nothing to really exchange on the day. Or it wouldn't have if the Whiskey Bros. shot glasses hadn't been delivered a week early. LOL Mark wrapped them and put them and some weight in a Bushmills tin, which was then put in a box, and then wrapped. This would have been the most awesome way to prank him except he opened Elaine's present first. She had taken the bottle of whiskey out of the tin for him and filled it with chocolate, candy, and socks!!! ROTFL The look on Mike's face was priceless when he realized there was no whiskey in his present. After everyone had had a good laugh, she brought out the bottle from behind the tree. Mark then gave him his present so he'd have something to drink it out of.

Mike went absolutely nuts on everyone this year, not just Mark. He found awesome gifts for Mom (Elaine) and Dad. The boys got a few video games and a ton of different Munchkin expansions which I've been bugged to play all day (I told them to clean off a table and we'd talk, mean mommy that I am LOL). But the biggest surprise of all was when he told me that the big box was for me. He had asked me what I wanted and I had just asked for a couple of the books that he had recommended I read. Instead, he and Mark had been conspiring and I opened the box to find a grey backdrop for the frame Mark had bought me and a home studio lighting set! I told Mark today that I'm actually looking forward to taking the tree down so I can have some room in the living room again so I can try setting things up and playing with my new portable studio! This is the second time this year that Mike has managed to stun me into silence. Not something that happens to me often, that's for sure. He's always been my favorite brother for so many reasons but man, he has forever secured that spot now. LOL (Ok, he secured it ages ago and cemented it beyond insanely when he started coming down and helping with the kids so I could take care of other kids drs appointments, truly above and beyond!)

So today was spent trying to start the clean-up process. I did a full shine on my sink with bleach and everything. It's soooo pretty right now (okay, it has the dinner dishes in it but I plan to do those as soon as I wrap up here). We did manage to get quite a bit of the trash and recycling ou and start the sorting and putting away process. It's going to take a bit more before it's done tho. Nico keeps going and finding his new toys and bringing them out to be assembled. It really is cute to watch him.

So that was our holiday. It may have started out bloody but it ended on some wonderful high notes. All I can do is agree with Tiny Tim...

"God Bless us, every one!"