Christmas doings...

Christmas was, well, Christmas. As I had predicted earlier, I never really got the house in the type of condition that I wanted (it only resulted in a laundry basket of junk moving into our bedroom, so I guess that's a positive). I never got to bake cookies, although I did take my time buying some at Rainbow. Sigh. Oh well.

The bauble pictured at left was my big present. I have a pair of topaz earrings that my parents gave me for Christmas a few years ago, and I wear them a lot during the spring and summer. However, the topaz in the earrings is almost a turquoise, not the normal sky blue. I haven't been able to find anything that would work with them as far as a pendant because of the different color (which is also why I love them so much.) Anyway, Husband stole one of my earrings out of my jewelry box, and finally found this pendant with a topaz that matches exactly. Good job dear!

We opened gifts on the 23rd, which went OK. Husband made the dinner, and, as usual, didn't let me do anything but get yelled at. We ended up putting two turkey breasts on the rotissiere on our big gas grill, and they turned out perfect. However, in the process of skewering the damn thing, one of the forks that holds things on the rod broke, so we are down to three tines on one of them. For once, we were able to time just about everything right so it was all warm and on the table. With our relatively small kitchen, it can be a challenge. We also ended up with enough leftovers to eat off of for a week.

Son wasn't so much into opening the presents as I thought he would be. Ripping paper lost its appeal after about gift 1 1/2. The funny thing was, he took the new toy, and played with it very quietly while the rest of us opened our presents. First it was with a set of small trucks that I had got for him, and then with a shape sorter and the associated blocks. He set up camp by Husband and played with them on the coffee table for a good 30 minutes without a peep. On the one hand, I am happy that he liked them and wasn't melting down, but on the other, I wish that he would have been more engaged in the whole thing. Next year he'll be a little over 2, so he should get into it more.

The goal for gifts from us to Son was that no batteries would be required. So many of the toys out there are so noisy, and overstimulating. Even the educational stuff tends to push kids into sensory overload. The only thing that we got him that needed a battery was the big cushy fire truck that sounds like it is idling if you push on the bumper. He also got a huge stack of books. I'm a little leery of letting him at the non-board books yet, since he is still in that ripping stage (just books and Kleenex right now, but forget about wrapping paper...). My SIL got him a set of board books hat have sliding panels (also made out of board) that he really likes.

Son was also really good at Christmas Eve mass, which sort of surprised me. We ended up going to the 5 o'clock mass, since Midnight Mass, as cool as it is, just wasn't in the cards. He sat on Husband's lap most of the time, looked at a couple of books, and ate some puffs. He did alternate back and forth between the two of us, but no whining, no squirming to get down, no screaming. Which was better than about half of the other kids there that were his age. It also helped that the two women sitting behind us were playing with him a bit too. He would grin, they would smile back. I'll take happy toddler any day of the week!

Other than that, nothing too remarkable. I would like to say that it was beautiful, etc., but we made it without my mom and Husband sniping at each other, no tantrums from a little boy (who slept really well despite the schedule mess-ups), and we were all safe. I don't think that we can, or should, ask for more than that.