Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

As you might imagine Christmas this year was a bit weird. I'm still working on getting better and I can actually stay up til about 3 now before I poop out - progress. Kim and Steve do Christmas with their daughter and son in law in St Helen's. Our house is right on the way  and usually Brandi needs to be on her way home on Christmas or early the next day due to work. I do the big Christmas dinner midafternoon on Christmas Eve, then Christmas day is present opening and eating left overs in our pjs. The girls love it because they have the whole day sprawling out in front of them to eat candy and play with all thier new stuff - what's not to like? David was running the ship this year from shopping to most of the cooking to clean up - we had a few mishaps but nothing too major. The biggest was he did the shopping on Wednesday and knew you had to defrost the turkey - he put it on the stove meaning to ask me but I was sleeping........ and I found a defrosted turkey breast in a pool of water the next morning. So for Christmas the dogs got 9 pounds of premium turkey breast. Which they're still working on. And will be til New Years.

Brandi got here around 11 after a long and tedious drive, we'd had an ice storm which was melting but she said there were patches of black ice and her car got tidal waved multiple times on the highway, her top speed was barely 60, but she got here. Kim and Steve made it past the downed power lines, the downed trees and the now famous landslide in Astoria.... but we were all here! I had a fun time but was by the time everyone left I was completely wiped out - back to bed with an ice pack. Brandi took care of bathtime, pjs, etc... The girls slept with mom upstairs so after they went to bed we finished wrapping gifts, hung  out and then back to bed. Christmas morning was so much fun - chaotic, but fun. Jackson was on video so he could watch - it's so funny. Adults open each gift, thank the giver, etc.... Kids? It's like letting rabid ferrets loose, the  paper is flying, screaming and jumping, they ripped through the entire pile in less than  15 minutes while simultaneously shoving candy in as fast as they could. Then of course it ALL has to come out of the packaging so we can see what we got, then everyone spends the hours looking for the seashell barette that came with the fairy that is the size of an eraser. 

Brandi headed back around lunch time  after brunch, the girls are staying until New Year, they have a two week vacation this year. I go for my follow up with the surgeon tomorrow, it was supposed to be last week but due to the weather got moved. I am working from home Wed and Friday, possible Thursday depending on what the doctor says. Then we have then Saturday and Sunday - then they go home. I'm hoping by the weekend I will feel good enough to do something fun with them, not that I haven't. With David's help we did do gingerbread houses, decorated the tree, etc... but it was pretty limited. He also got in a few days of duck hunting, he's actually off hunting today. It's been raining since Friday and the rest of the week is rain too so it will be inside stuff for the remainder of their visit. They arent' complaining - we have a ton of new stuff to play with so I guess it all worked out in the end.