Christmas, lovely Christmas.

It was a lovely holiday, even though we're far away from home. It all got over too quickly, -- my only real complaint. What I liked about this Christmas was that I didn't feel a lot of the stress I normally feel surrounding the whole month of December. I shopped earlier than usual, and -- thanks to Brian -- had most of our presents wrapped BEFORE 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve. It was nice. I still felt a bit overwhelmed and frustrated from time to time, but not that frantic, over-the-top kind of stress I sometimes seem to develop at high-intensity moments, like Christmas.

We had a little Christmas Eve party at our house with a couple of families we know from church. Let's be honest, isn't Christmas Eve mainly about the food?? Oh, we had some delectable-ness going on at our house... bbq wings, layered salad (the kind with bacon and peas), ham and cheese rolls, dill dip and veggies, slushie drinks, caramel turtle brownies, almond fudge on shortbread, peanut butter fudge, gingerbread cake... I'm sure I missed some other wonderfulness (but you can bet I didn't miss sampling ANY of it, abundantly, that night!!)

We attempted a little nativity play with the children. It wasn't our best ever -- two wanted to be Mary, two wanted to be an angel, no one wanted to be Joseph, the shepherd didn't want to wear a "hat", innkeeper kinda wanted to follow Joseph and Mary on their walk through Bethlehem, Natalie wanted to steal the baby Jesus from his manger (or add extra "babies" to join him), and we didn't even attempt to add wise men. But hopefully the kids got a something out of it. And they looked cute, for sure!

Christmas morning was quiet at our house. The picture above is from just before the kids woke up. I set my alarm for 8 a.m., thinking for SURE the kids would be up long before it went off. But nope. We ended up having to wake them, so they could open presents before we had to get ready for church. ha! I guess our Christmas Eve party wore them out!

It was a really sweet Christmas morning. Skates and art stuff for Samantha, a dump truck and cement mixer truck for Spencer, a big slide and a back pack and baby doll for Natalie, pillow pets all around ("Santa read the back of my mind about the Pillow Pet" was Samantha's exact quote.)... Happy kids! One fun gift... I got a HUGE stuffed bear from Costco for Brian. It was something we saw way back in October, and he just thought it was soooo cool -- a big ol' bear. So, I got it for him when I was grocery shopping with just Nat and Spence. Well, that very day that I bought it, when Daddy came home from work, first thing Spencer said to him was, "we got you a big bear from Costco as a surprise, Daddy." Nice. I had even hidden it away in the attic, where I was SURE Brian wouldn't find it. Oh well. It was really for the kids, anyway, right? I just thought it would be funny for it to be for "Daddy" on Christmas morning. :)

Brian got me/us a GPS for Christmas. Can I please say that again?? We got A GPS!!! HOORAY!! I'm so proud of him for taking my very blunt hints all month long, and coming up with EXACTLY what I wanted. :) (No more crying, helpless, lost, frustrated Kamber, wandering aimlessly around NY! whew!!) He also got me some other very thoughtful gifts... MAC make-up and gift card, a nice zip-up sweater, etc. And in turn, I picked up on his "we should get a Kindle" hint,, and got him a Kindle. Surprise! And some clothes (boring). And a CD.

The day went like this...  

wake up. open presents with the kids. I shower while Brian makes breakfast for the kids. I eat peanut butter fudge for breakfast, again. hurry and get everyone ready for church. cry (just a tiny bit) on the way to church because we're running late and I'm supposed to play the organ. miraculously arrive 5 mins before the meeting is set to start and breathe a sigh of relief and an apology to Brian for my stress and tears. play the organ for the first half of the meeting then let the bishop play for the second half since no one let me know in advance that there was a "program" I was to rehearse. go home and play with Christmas toys. make a delicious green salad and head to the Anguses for a very festive, fancy Christmas dinner complete with ham, pork, lamb and turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes, and frozen berries in our ice cubes (so fancy my kids didn't know what to do with them, ha!), and cloth napkins and Martinellis and Australian pavlova. mmmm!! a sweet moment watching Natalie sit on Kerry Angus' lap, eating pavlova and waiting very expectantly for every "next" bite. a little Christmas program with some singing, stories and a lovely Christmas prayer. a cartoon video about the birth of the Savior (still to scary for Samantha, who couldn't bear to watch wicked King Herod). home again, home again for a few more minutes to play with toys before bed. quick "Merry Christmas" phone call home. early bed night for me -- 11 p.m! Brian kept talking to his parents and sister for a few more hours before turning in. A lovely Christmasy day. Kinda sad it's all over.

The day after Christmas we were lazy slugs, living on leftovers and fudge, playing with all our new gifts, etc. We went for a walk around the neighborhood so Samantha could try out her new skates. She is a bit daunted, sad to say. "I'll NEVER get the hang of this!" -- was her final comment as we headed back in the house. But I bet she'll try again soon. She's not one to stay daunted for long, we know! Here she is with Natalie, right after skating practice ended...

And here's one of Nat, in her big puffy pink coat, which she loves, and which makes her look even more adorable than ever, if that's even possible...

In the evening, we took a drive down to Brooklyn to check out some fancy Christmas lights I'd seen listed on someone's blog. Dyker Heights Christmas lights -- an entire neighborhood in the Italian sector has gone CRAZY with Christmas lights. And we loved it. The kids convinced us we'd enjoy it a lot more if we got out and walked around to see the lights. So we did. And it was worth the cold hands and runny noses. It was my favorite Christmas treat of the season, I've decided. I leave you with this bunch of photos, which really deserves its own post (but isn't going to get it tonight)...

(Yes, the kids were in their pajamas. Smart parents, eh?)

Kinda hard to see (below), but there are 30 foot-high nutcrackers in the background of this picture. They're real. Some lady standing next to us said she heard they were brought in with a crane!!

Giant Santa... almost a little bit scary, but cool, too. I like Samantha's quizzical look.

A more distant shot of the nutcracker house..

Three happy kids, ready to head home, fall asleep in the car, and be lifted carefully into bed by mom and dad at 10 p.m...