Merry Christmas!

We completely changed our traditions and opened the presents last night.  This is a good thing because the boy always wakes us up at O-dark-30.  When I speak of the boy, I don't mean our son...I mean the husband.  Zach has never gotten up early on Christmas day.  We always have to wake him up.

So today we all got to sleep in till about 1 p.m. and I loved it!  From now on we'll open presents on Christmas Eve.

I overdid it a bit this year but I was so tired of having lean Christmases years on end.  It's been over 14 years since I remember having more than 2 presents under the tree.  Most often there was only one gift for me.  And one year...none at all.  Actually, I only got 2 presents this year, too, but I let Zach and Tom have a better Christmas than we normally have.  January will be bleak, as well as February, but it's worth it.  When I say I overdid it, I don't mean I spent a fortune.  I mean I spent less than $200 on Christmas...which is a lot more than we normally spend.  And more than we could afford, to be honest. 

Zach got a Snuggie (which he wanted) a knife set, How to Train Your Dragon, and a Link Crossbow training game with zapper.  Tom got an ammunition box, a set of fingerless mitts, a Backwoods magazine, a folding shovel for his hunting trips, and a pair of sleep pants.  I got the 2-disk set of Star Trek (the latest movie) and Alice in Wonderland.  Unfortunately Alice is a Blu-Ray dvd so I have to take it back and exchange it.  Tom didn't know what Blu-Ray was, poor guy.

It was a pretty darned good Christmas, all in all.  We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and a roast is simmering in the crock pot.  I caved and got a roast, albeit a small one, because Tom really wanted a meal.  We'll have potatoes, carrots and green beans to go with it.  And we've got rolls left over from his company dinner.

I decided not to go to the family party.  I'm fretting and anxious trying to decide so I figured if I was this upset over making the decision, it would be best if I just didn't go this year and planned on smaller events in the upcoming year.  Throwing myself into one huge party where stress is already high is inviting pain and misery for myself.  Having made the decision takes a lot of the pressure off of me and I'm feeling much calmer.

Apparently my family's Christmas dinner is at my sister's house today.  I saw it on facebook.  No one ever bothers to tell me what's going on.  I've been out of the loop for years so I called my parents' house and left a message that I would call later...just so they don't think I forgot to call them.  They expect the worst of me all the time so I would hate to disabuse them of that notion.

So now that supper is cooking, I'm going to go watch Star Trek and How to Train Your Dragon and knit on one of my projects.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

TTFN