{"id":3322,"date":"2011-12-29T23:18:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T06:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2011-12-29T23:22:02","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T06:22:02","slug":"christmas-hangover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/?p=3322","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Hangover."},"content":{"rendered":"

I just realized I did not post one picture or one word about our Christmas this year.<\/p>\n

I am over here knee-deep in Christmas decorations that are heading back into their crates for another year and I figured I might want to write a bit – or at least post some photos – to have recorded proof that Christmas really did come to our house this year.<\/p>\n

In fact, it came fast and furiously for weeks on end. But once the last treats were made, the last gift was wrapped, and the final carol sung in the Christmas pageant – our Christmas was perfect. It was full of family time, relaxing in jammies all day and even…gasp(!) a nap for Mama for a bit on Christmas afternoon. Exactly what we all needed.<\/p>\n

But let’s back up a bit. After we got that pesky school stuff out of the way, we prepped for our Christmas pageant. The dress rehearsal was a little scary (isn’t it always?) but both of our angels knew their lines and were ready to go come showtime.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0139\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Angel #1 got to join chime choir this year and she was very excited to be ringing Mama’s favorite song (Angels We Have Heard on High.)<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0068\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And both Angels sang their hearts out. Unfortunately, Addie is behind Miss Suzanne for a lot of both songs, and I’m a horrible videographer, trying to juggle around and get them in, but you can see them in two of their songs here<\/a> and here<\/a> if you would like. I can hear both of the girls at different points in the video, their sweet little voices. They did an excellent job…even though they were exhausted.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0094\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Poor tired little Em is on top middle – Addie is lower right. Yes, the little Filipino girl in the bottom left does have a wig on…strange, no?)<\/p>\n

But strangely as soon as the pageant was over they found a surplus of energy that had been hidden and we all let a little crazy out.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0125\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did manage to rein my family in for a somewhat decent photo before we headed off to look at Christmas lights and prepare our stockings and Santa letters.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0132\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My favorite street – a few blocks from us. They light up all the big trees up and down both sides.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0169\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I would just like to add for the record that Mama and Daddy were in bed by 11pm, maybe 11:30, on Christmas Eve. We were kinda prepared and able to enjoy a minute of peace.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0161\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And we were in bed before Santa visited, and he did come!<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0184\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I heard the girls get up at 6:30 on Christmas morning to use the bathroom, but nobody came creeping into our room. So I laid there for about 15 minutes and then got up to investigate. The girls were snuggled on the bottom bunk playing Old Maid. When I said “Merry Christmas – what are you girls doing?” – Emma said, “Well, it wasn’t 7:00 yet, so we didn’t want to wake you up – but can we go downstairs, now??” Sweet girls. I forgot to tell them that our “Do Not Disturb Mom & Dad Before 7am<\/strong><\/em>” rule doesn’t really apply on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

\n

We all got some a-maize-ing loot.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0222\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Em was most excited by the Wicked tickets that Santa brought the whole family. (Ok, Mama was pretty excited, too!)<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0194\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Addie pretty much liked all of her goodies – but this one from Daddy is sure to be a hit.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0246\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The best gift of the day – there was a very elaborately wrapped box with a great handmade tag, To: Mom, From: Jelly Bean and Peanut. And the box had 72 cents. It was all the change Addie had in her purse, so she wrapped it up for me. Love those two.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0240\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_0235\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The aftermath.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0249\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So we took our time cleaning it up, indulged in some Zingerman’s chocolate bread, played outside at the park, took a little nap, grilled dinner outside and finished the day off with our whole family in our bed starting Harry Potter – book #2.<\/p>\n

It was a practically perfect in every way Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just realized I did not post one picture or one word about our Christmas this year. I am over here knee-deep in Christmas decorations that are heading back into their crates for another year and I figured I might … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/psMOS-RA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3325,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barelycontrolledchaos.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}