The Day After

The Boy...oh sorry...Pokemon Boy commented yesterday that he was worried about today. You know, the day after. I was surprised that a 7 yr old would grasp the concept of how much of a bummer the day after Christmas can be. But yah, he knew that, compared to the endless cornucopia of presents he and Lil' Bro experienced yesterday, today could very well seem like the end of the world.

I don't have that problem. Christmas rocked. I loved being with my parents, Big Sis and her Ridiculously Tall Hubby. Oh, and with their dog (my nephew), Sid. Not to mention my little dachshund friend, Kali - who I am watching for my wonderful church friends while they travel. So we had a full house of loving family and two wee dogs. How fun is that?

Big Sis and her Tall Hubby stayed over Christmas Eve. Her Tall Hubby assembled the two ride on toys from Santa (one for Pokemon Boy and one for Lil' Bro). [I have asked God to hugely bless him for doing that. That assembly was totally weighing on me for weeks. And I just never got to it.] We got everything all placed under the tree and by the fire place and were in bed by midnight. That's a record compared to years past. Again, that is due to the expert assembling skills of Tall Bro-In-Law.

Lil' Bro woke me at 6am - he was wet. So we changed him and I pulled him into bed. He slept for another hour. And by "slept", I mean he tossed and turned and played with his favorite stuffed dog. Finally, he could take it no longer and started to leave my room. I told him to go get in bed with his brother - hoping to buy myself another hour of sleep. Yah. Good luck with that. 7:26am, they were both in my room about to burst. I figured Big Sis and Tall Bro-In-Law needed the joy of being woken early on Christmas morning by their nephews. Away I sent them. But Big Sis and Tall Guy are made of sturdier stuff than I. They did not awaken - only pulled covers over their heads. So the boys, both dogs and I went down stairs.

The boys ran into the tree room and gave the perfect oohs and ahs. I directed them to the living room to see the ride ons by the fire place. Lil' Bro goes, "Ooooooh!...What IS it?!" Too funny. Big Sis and Tall Guy came down pretty soon afterwards. The boys had already dumped out their stockings and were playing with the loot. We made a big scrambled egg breakfast with bacon & two kinds of sausage. I had mini-scones from my local grocery bake shop that are to DIE for. Big Sis made the coffee. It was awesome.

Mom & dad came at the end of breakfast. And we all started opening presents. And by "we", I mean mostly Pokemon Boy and Lil' Bro. We adults had a few for each other. But let's face it. It's a day for kids. And it's more fun to watch them overload on joy.

My boys have no idea how blessed they are. They have no clue that they have more than the normal number of grandparents. They have no clue that most people don't have like 947 aunts & uncles. And this year - I think due to my "circumstances" - everyone seemed to make extra sure to send a little something. I seriously need to hold a garage sale or something.

In the afternoon, future ex came to pick them up for his time with them. This is where divorce benefits the kids. Two sets of stockings. Two sets of present opening. It truly is a day of glut for them. Ahhhh...enjoy it now, boys. Enjoy it now.

Today, we had Neighbor Boy with us as his mom had to work - even though I tried to convince her to play hooky with us. That depression Pokemon Boy was worried about? Never hit. Neighbor Boy is the same age as Pokemon Boy and equally obsessed with all things Pokemon. And he and Lil' Bro play so well together, too. He's like a 3rd brother in our family. So they had a blast. Then, toward the end of the day, the FedEx Penske rental truck [I can only assume they are swamped with holiday backlog and had to actually rent trucks to assist in the delivering] pulled up and delivered a huge box from my birth mom. So we got to open all of those tonight. It was really unexpected. And was filled with tons of stuff for ME! She told me that I had mentioned a while ago that I won't have anything under the tree on Christmas day. Future ex and I used to spoil each other rotten on Christmas. So I figured I'd have one thing under the tree - one thing that I bought myself! She heard that and said, no way! And boom, there it is. A box full of fun and sundry items. Only a few were labeled. She told us all to just open them and share them all. Lil' Bro opened a box of sports bras ("Mommy...I didn't WANT sports bras!"). Pokemon Boy opened a box with 6 bikini undies in them ("Oh I've wanted these my WHOLE LIFE!" quipped he). It was such a sweet thing for her to do. It really made today even more fun than it already was.

So Christmas has been great this year. A bit funky due to the fractured family. I never thought I'd be doing the whole kid sharing thing. But we did it this first year and survived.

I have to admit that I had asked God to help me really feel the spirit on Christmas. It is really really hard to pull my head from that proverbial arse of self involvement. Fortunately, God is stronger than my own imperfections. What with being the creator of all things and all.

I am having one of those wonderful days that God seems to bless me with of late. I am filled with this excitement. This anticipation. Like, something big is coming. And I can't WAIT to see what it is. I don't know if it's going to be some new project I'll tackle. Maybe it's some new friends. Maybe it's a new guy. I don't really feel like it's the guy yet. But something big is coming. It's like waiting for Christmas day when you're little. Isn't that weird? I love this feeling. I almost don't want whatever it is to get here. I rather like this excitement. But it's from God so I'm sure I'll be glad when it finally does get here.

Merry Day After Christmas, everyone!

*I will post pictures soon. I'm just way too lazy to go downstairs to get the camera and cables. I know. I'm pathetic.