Christmas is over (and it went very well) and the tournament is over as well (and that went well).

 

Christmas was busy, but nice. We started off celebrating by going over to my sister-in-laws house around 5pm, and ate dinner, and waited for my father-in-law to get off work to open gifts. That was around 9:30pm. We didn't get home until after 11pm, and then it was time to get our family midnight celebration ready. That is where we have 13 items on the table that we can't eat until after midnight. The girls were not sure originally if they were going to stay up for that, but since we got home so late they figured they might as well!! It was nice. . .except my youngest got a little sick. I forgot to mention that while we were waiting for my father-in-law to get to my sister-in-laws, my niece bought something like "Thankgiving to drink," or something like that, to challenge her brothers and anyone else to see if they could drink it. Long story short, my husband and some of the others tried the basics. . . turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie (which was said to taste like wax). But my nephews tried a large sip of brussle spourts. Yuck and gross. They made a small face, said it was really bad, but we didn't realize how bad until my sister-in-law tried it and ran from the table to throw-up. So my youngest, of the funky stomach but up to any challenge, decided to try a sip of all of them. Starting with the turkey and ending with the brussle spourts. She did okay until that last one, and then we thought she was going to throw up! And that taste stayed with her almost through to the morning!

 

On to Christmas morning. That was very nice. My parents came over with my Grandmother and cousin. They got there at 7am as my kids had asked and the opening of gifts was nice. From there, we got dressed semi-nice and headed back to my sister-in-laws for a late breakfast (even though we had Cinnabons, eggs and bacon at home first) and a gift exchange with my husband's extended family. Back home for my youngest and myself to work on the posters for the tournament while my husband and older daugher went to help put up nets for the soccer tournament. Then run to my parents for dinner (late may I add) and a bit of relaxing. And then back home so my youngest could see her boyfriend some time (since the next two days would be the tournament).

 

Then, the next two days were filled with soccer games, refs, trouble-shooting problems and getting people and things were they needed to be. It's done and over and it went well. Our girls played well, and won three out of their four games. They only lost to the team that won the tournament, and that team they played with and think they could play against in league. We'll see though. Hopes are high for this set of girls and it's my daughter's senior year so I really hope it goes well.

 

So, that brings me to the last two days. And yesterday was spent sleeping in and taking my girls shopping (gift cards) and today was about the same except that I actually got up and ran this morning! After two weeks of either not being able to or having an excuse, I got up and ran 3.74 miles while my daughter rode her bike next to me. My husband even got up and ran a bit this morning as well. So, so far it's been a good day. I do plan on relaxing tonight with a martini and a good book. It's just a matter of picking out which one in my tbr pile is going to be a good book!

 

Here are my girls Christmas day :-)

Yes, my last package showed up at 2pm today! I finished making my last gift last night, right after wrapping all of the presents that I had bought. It was kind of difficult this year. Not the actual wrapping itself, but matching gifts for my girls. In past years it was easier, because their big gifts were similar and the smaller ones were easy to see which matched. Well, this year their big gifts are totally different. Then, some of the smaller gifts the same, and the middle ones all over the place! So, when gifts match I usually wrap them in the same paper, and put the same kind of label and names on them (like if I use one girl's nickname, I use the other one - and if I sign one from "Mom & Dad" I will sign the other the same instead of "M&D" or "Mommy & Daddy.") So, I started with the small alike ones, and then worked my way up. Between that, and wrapping all of the other gifts, I spent a good 2 hours bent over working on that. But, I finished a couple of days early! Then I sat down with my glass of wine, turned on the television, and sat with my knitting. And I finished that project last night! (Yes, I do still need to wrap it). And, last night preparing for the chance of not receiving that last gift (since it was sent by regular USPS mail), I made a page with pictures of the gift and an explanation. But, no need for that now!!! But I do need to go wrap it, along with the other gift. And then I am done and ready for Christmas!! I even wrapped the small gifts that go in the stocking :-) Oh, and early this morning we went out and bought the Cinnabons for Christmas morning, and all of the specialty food for tomorrow night and the morning. It just feels so nice to get that done. Oh yeah, and my oldest daughter and I spent 3 1/2 hours really cleaning the house yesterday as well. We wanted it done early and right. Of course, it didn't help that when my husband let the dog in last night, she tracked muddy footprints across my floor. And I woke up, came down to my kitchen and saw that on the floor and an empty pizza box on the counter. No, I wasn't too happy about that. I made my husband throw away that box (because I found it was him who left it), and washed those spots up off the floor! Oh, and while shopping today at the mall for the Cinnabons (and waiting for Verizon to fix my husband's phone - that I am glad is fixed but wasn't happy waiting for), we went and picked up a new coffee maker as well! My husband has been saying for the last year that he wants a new one. About 18 months ago we bought one of those pod coffee makers. It's okay, but hard to get the pods when out grocery shopping and it's hard when you want more than a cup or two at a time. So, last year around Christmas my coworker gave me an old coffee maker from a job she used to have that did food demonstrations. It worked okay, but it looked like it came from the 70's and it was just okay. Now that it's getting closer to having more people over again, my husband decided to bite the bullet and get us a nice one with a timer :-) So now I can have fresh coffee waiting for us on Christmas morning. Oh, and this one has the thermal carafe, so I don't have to worry about turning off the coffee maker when it's done. Isn't that nice! Gosh, I'm all over the place today with my blog entry! Oh well. It's just nice to know that the things that have to be done are done. I've picked up my books, and my knitting and I plan on having a relaxing afternoon/evening!

It's getting closer to Christmas, and I'm still not ready!! First off, there are three gifts that I am waiting for in the mail. Okay, two are from UPS, and through the mail. One of the ones from UPS is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, but the other one was supposed to be delivered yesterday and it wasn't. Instead, it went to some place in Utah, and from there it states that there was a misdirection, and now it's in Las Vegas! I sure hope it gets here on time. The other one is through the regular mail, and I can only hope it will come on time. If not, I'll be printing off nice pictures of the item :-/  Oh yeah, I ordered something else and that one is supposed to be here on Thursday. I'd better track that one as well! As for shopping, I'm *almost* done with that! We were supposed to be done today, but some stuff got in the way. So now we're going to *try* and get it done tomorrow! And I'm working on my last knitted gift. It should be done by Friday. At that point, I plan on relaxing and catching up on my reading!!