Christmas 2008 and 26 months

You might want to grab a cup of coffee and settle in, because this is going to be a long one :)

Christmas 2008 turned out to be a fabulous one. Joe and I got up at dark o'clock(4:00 a.m.) on Wednesday to make the long drive up to San Francisco to Lisa and Scott's house.

Our plan worked because there was virtually no traffic to speak of and we arrived around noon and just in time for lunch.

We had a lazy rest of the day hanging around the house and then ordered Pizza for dinner.
I think this might become a new Christmas Eve tradition. No mess, no fuss, and yummy!

I hit the sack early, because I had gotten up early, and because Lisa and Scott warned me that we would be up early on Christmas Day.

Man, they weren't kidding about that. Lisa came in and woke us up at 6:30 to tell us that the kids were up and waiting for us in the living room to open presents.


Here are some pictures of Christmas morning.

Before the frenzy began. This was at 6:30 a.m. Yawn.
Cameron with his mountain of presents.
Grace with her mountain of presents. They both must have been very good this year. Heh.
Santa brought Cameron a skateboard ramp(which he plans on using as a bike ramp). Apparently Santa doesn't wrap his presents. I'm not sure why Santa brought Cameron anything at all, as he says he doesn't believe in him.

Mommy bought Cameron these foam swords.

Cameron and Daddy had to stop and have a sword fight before he opened more presents.

I am so thrilled with this present, as now around 12 million times a day Cameron asks me "Wanna have a sword fight"? And if my answer is "No" he whacks me with one of the swords.

Good times.

Thanks Lisa, for this magical Christmas memory.
Gracie got this really pretty TuTu(which now I realize you cannot see all that well in this pic),

and a Fairy Art Set.

Uncle Joe and I got Grace a gumball machine. Scott was thrilled with this gift.

Cameron got this K'Nex set, which he wants me to help him put together but Dude- I can hardly put together a puzzle and looking at all the small pieces in that makes me start to hyperventilate.

This looks like a job for Uncle Joe.

Buster doesn't know what all the fuss is about. All he knows is that he can barely fit on his favorite couch because of all these colorful boxes.


Lisa got her beloved IPhone, which she has not put down since she received it. Seriously. I think she may have slept with it. Also, she is going to kill me for posting this picture of her without makeup.

Cameron and Grace got this Uno game. It's a fun game and I really like playing it but Cameron and Grace both have the attention span of gnats and they won't play a whole game with me and Joe says he isn't an Uno type of guy so I have no one to play with.

This is what the family room looked like when it was all over. Carnage. Just looking at this picture gives me anxiety and I cleaned it up and vacuumed shortly after taking this picture and then I felt much better.Joe and Gizmo relaxing amongst the chaos.


Cameron got a new game for his Wii so this is how he spent a good part of the morning after opening his presents.

This is what he was staring intently at



Now on to the the important stuff.

My presents. Heh.

Lisa got me this makeup that is supposed to be really good for your skin but it came with a video to show you how to put it on.

A video.

To show you how to apply makeup.

It usually takes me about 15 minutes to apply my makeup in the morning and I'm lucky if I get powder and mascara on my face, so I am a little apprehensive about this. I'll let you know how it goes.

Lisa also got me this cool ornament. I have seen these on several other blogs and was thinking I should get one but never got around to making it to Co.st Pl.us, so I was very happy when I opened this and saw what it was.

Lisa also got me a very pretty sweat suit set, scrapbooking software for my computer, and new slipcovers for our couch and loveseat(which we needed desperately).

Joe got me this pretty makeup bag filled with travel sized bath products.

He also got me this Chinese "Lion Dog" figurine, and these pretty Chinese nesting dolls.



As you can see, Sophie is never far from his thoughts, which is reflected in his gifts to me this year. I thought that was so sweet.

He also got me a bunch of bubble bath from Ba.th and Bo.dy, one of my favorite stores. Their bubble bath is the best. I take a lot of baths.




Cameron also got a Nerf dart gun set, which Lisa also enjoyed playing with. Cameron is fond of shooting the darts at my computer and making them stick to it, so thanks Lisa for that too.
Last night Grace had a fever and fell asleep at dinner and Cameron accidentally punched his hand through the glass on the front door and cut his hand and was bleeding all over the kitchen.

Never a dull moment around here!

Both of them are fine today, by the way.

Lastly, Lisa found this website where you can digitally add a Santa to a picture of your house. So cool!


Of course I had to do it too. Hers looks more realistic. I think because my tree is so small. You can find it here: Capture the Magic.


Not sure if anyone is still reading after all of that.

It was a wonderful Christmas.

Today we are planning on walking over to the Ap.ple store so Lisa can get a case for her IPhone.
(Lisa and Scott live within walking distance of an App.le store. Can you imagine? How lucky are they? They can walk. To the App.le store. Awesome.)

Joe and I have two more days to relax before Lisa and Scott leave for a trip to Tahoe and we are in charge. Send good thoughts. :)

Lastly, today marks 26 months that we have been waiting for Sophie.

I have to have Faith that someday we will see her face.

That there will someday be a Christmas where she is here with us to share in all of this joy and craziness.

Some day.

Hope all of your Christmases were merry!