What an interesting Christmas we had.
Our Christmas always starts Christmas Eve when we go to my mom and dad's house for a wonderful day spent with them and my sister and my brother, his girlfriend and her daughter [who are really family, despite the fact that my brother hasn't married her yet - we keep hoping!].
My family really went all out this year to make sure the kids had an especially great Christmas after the terrible year they've had. It was truly wonderful - the kids got things they really wanted and love, they had a great time playing with my family and each other... it was a wonderful day.
I put a lot of cast iron pots on my amazon.com wish list this year because I want to transition to cooking with only cast iron and baking stones [a la Pampered Chef]. I've been learning about some hazards with the "non-stick" cookware I have - like that non-stick coating is really bad for humans and animals [have you ever noticed they come with a warning not to cook around pet birds because of the fumes emitted from the cookware when it is heated? Apparently it can and does kill parakeets!]. I had also read that cooking with cast iron could boost the iron content in our bodies, and since my kids and I all stay borderline anemic, that seemed like a good thing.
Well, my mom and dad and sister got me pretty much every single piece of cast iron I asked for! And my parents got me a "Cast Iron Cooking for Dummies" book - which is really interesting and neat!
Monkey3 meticulously collected all the bows from the gifts!
Monkey2 LOVED his Star Wars books!
Monkey4 and Monkey3 got some really cool puzzles.
Monkey1 got TONS of American Girl books, which she loved!
Grumpy fed Monkey5 lots of stuff babies aren't supposed to eat. I've given up on stopping it - she loves it and she adores him, so I just leave them alone!
Monkey4 was old enough this year to get really excited about presents!
Then we came home and got ready for bed - the kids went down without a fight [Santa was on his way LOL!].
My husband and I spent Christmas eve watching "Return of the King", which is just such a fantastic movie. I love it!
Christmas morning was wonderful - except 3 of the kids were sick and my husband and I were sick. Monkey1 and Monkey2 had some sort of stomach bug and wouldn't eat all day and Monkey2 and my husband and I had a bad cold and felt terrible. We didn't make it to Mass [which always makes me feel like a complete failure... but I just didn't want to "share" with all the folks at the overcrowded Christmas Mass...especially the elderly ones].
My MIL canceled coming Christmas Day because the kids were sick, so it turned out to be just us all afternoon, which was really nice actually - a very quiet, calm, happy day.
St. Nicholas brought Monkey3 a wooden people Pirate ship, a design and drill toy, and a dress from Hanna Andersson. And chocolate -which turned out to be the favorite present of all with all parties concerned. LOL! [the only time of year they each get to eat a WHOLE chocolate bar by themselves!]
St. Nicholas brought Monkey1 the American Girl "Julie" doll, an MP3 player, and a dress and sweater from Hanna Andersson.
Monkey5 was also a big chocolate fan [sadly, she did not get to eat hers though. Her grumpy wasn't around to sneak it to her!]. St. Nicholas also brought her a Lamaze Monkey, a Radio Flyer walker wagon, and a Hanna Andersson dress.
Monkey4 ate her chocolate before she even bothered to open all her other presents. St. Nicholas brought her a wooden people fire truck, brio blocks, and a Hanna Andersson dress.
Monkey2 doesn't know what else Santa brought because he didn't open anything after he got his Nintendo DS .. LOL! Just kidding - but we DID have to drag him back to the tree to see his stocking and other stuff! St. Nicholas brought him the DS and a Star Wars Legos game for it and an outfit from Hanna Andersson.
The toothbrushes in their stockings were also a big hit - Baby Monkey got her first real toothbrush!
So, Monkey3 got "Shrek the Third" for Christmas [not sure that was a good choice LOL!]. The kids got to watch it Christmas Afternoon and, who knew? It totally devastated my 4yo.
In the movie, Fiona's father [the King] dies. Shortly after that scene, I was in the kitchen cooking up some chicken and dumplings and Monkey3 walks in with tears streaming down her face and looks at me and says "The daddy in that movie died. One day you and daddy are going to die too" and starts bawling her eyes out. She was *completely* distraught. We talked about how yes, one day her daddy and I would die but that it would likely not be till she was a little old lady herself. We talked about the average life span being 80. We talked about "worst case scenarios" IF one or both of us died [who would take care of her, etc]. Nothing helped. She spent the rest of the day crying [alternating between crying quietly and heartrending sobs....] because we were going to die. And she kept saying "Its just not fair for you and daddy to die!" It was really heartbreaking and not exactly what I had in mind for Christmas day...
Aside from the melancholy reality of death, it was a great Christmas none-the-less.
I hope you and your family had a blessed Christmas too!
2 comments:
I can't remember which author wrote about the reality of death and love being intertwined. (CS Lewis maybe?) But, I have found that to be true. It's a part of childhood to be afraid of your parents death, but it is just as much a part of loving someone as an adult. (What turned Anikin Skywalker into Darth Vader - a rejection of the reality of death! Okay, I know Star Wars is not really a good Catholic trilogy like LOTRs but, we use teaching moments wherever we find them...)
So monkey3 is growing up and developing a sense about the preciousness of those we love. I hope I handle my kiddos trauma as well as you did. I'm afraid my 'splanin might not be so gentle. "Yes, everything that lives, dies!"
God Bless you Monkey Mama! I hope that your monkeys and their monkeyPapa have a great New Years!
LOL! We consider Star Wars to be excellent for "teachable moments" around here! And you are right of course!
I hope you guys have a great new year too!
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