Good Christmas morning, friends....

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
:santa:

It's early Christmas morning & I'm up & about; used to tweedle nonsense, I suppose. My dinner with my friend yesterday was postponed due to weather.

I spent the day watching the snow fall & playing piano. Put my new flannel sheets on the bed & I had found myself a beautiful old fashioned winter nightgown for last night & this morning. I went to bed feeling all snuggly.

Today will be some of the same but substitute in painting. I have some travel plans to consider for next week (would like to spend some of this holiday season with my dads & sibs). We'll see what the weather brings.

Wishing you & yours a day filled with family, love, along with a great deal of humor & patience thrown in if you're dealing with a difficult child. :christmasgift::xmasdancers: Travel safely today.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Good morning. :elf:

Linda- yesterday and today sound so peaceful! Unlike the mayhem that unfolded here a little while ago. We have two trees: Santa brings his gift for Duckie and places the filled stockings in the one upstairs on our main floor. Mom and Dad place the family gifts under the little tree downstairs. So Duckie (who had strict orders not to wake us before 5am) stood quietly in our bedroom waiting for the appointed time to open gifts. We start upstairs then head downstairs.

She is spoiled rotten.

I hope for a quiet day of puttering and a nap. That is once all the toys are out of the packaging! :hammer:

Merry Christmas :xmasdancers:
 

Rabbit

Member
Good Morning All. Merry Christmas!
TM- My difficult child 3 has also been waiting patiently to open presents. Hope u
have a wonderful day that includes a nap!
Linda- Enjoy your quiet Christmas.
Sending Hugs Rabbit
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
:forchristmas: Merry Christmas :christmaslights:


Good morning Linda. Sounds like a lovely, peaceful day for you wtih snow falling and flannel! I love those old fashioned nighties. Hope your day is peaceful today and you are sleeping now!

TM, I suppose the mayhem is over for now at your house! All those weeks we prep and plan and it's over in minutes! I am looking forward to my nap today as well.

Naturally, with teenagers, all is still quiet at my house! I'm enjoying coffee, the fire, the tree, and my computer before the paper starts flying!

My ex mother-in-law will be here for breakfast at 11 so I think I'll let the kids sleep till 9. Gives me plenty of time to get things ready. Had a simply lovely day with family yesterday. My mom threw a great luncheon, she was always an exceptional hostess, and being with my brother and sister was the greatest!!!! My other brother is on a Christmas cruise out of CA. He'll be coming out to the east coast in a couple months.

My brother, my cousin and I were out having a smoke when my mom came to the door and said, "you all need to come in because Sylvia is leaving". We rushed in and it was a smoke screen. Mom had a huge birthday cake and everyone was waiting to sing to me! My 50th is Monday and mom wanted to share in the celebration. Really sweet...

Wishing everyone peace :rudolph:.

Sharon
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Merry Christmas!!

difficult child is awake and downstairs opening his stocking gifts-he's allowed to before we get up. We're wondering why it's so quiet down there so I need to keep this short and go do a check.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas; enjoy your day!:forchristmas:
 

Marguerite

Active Member
G'day, folks. Merry Christmas!

Linda, have a peaceful, relaxed day. I'm glad you will be safe at home, not trying to travel in so much snow and ice.

TM, good on Duckie for waiting. It's so difficult at Christmas. For us in Australia, we used to have to wait until sunrise. But it's summer here, so sunrise is early!

Rabbit, you will have to have my nap for me. I didn't get to have one, although I felt the need badly.

Sharon/LDM, how come your kids are sleeping in on Christmas Day? How did you manage that? Valium in their cocoa last night? Happy birthday for Monday! That was father in law's birthday too.

Sharon/WO, enjoy your day. I hope difficult child hasn't been up to anything too damaging.

It's been an easygoing Christmas Day here for us. easy child & SIL1 arrived last night in time to have dinner with us, then headed down to mother in law's place to stay overnight. They chose to not come to church this morning (a fairly sound choice, given that the usual couple were presenting the servicve and frankly, they need to take a break).

We then headed back to mother in law's place, dropped her home, then back to load up with supplies.

Weather-wise it was hot at church and after we got home. mother in law put the air conditioning on. But within an hour or so the orecast cold winds arrived and it even began to rain a little. We've had a general mild dampness about the day with these cold winds. I say "cold" but it's currently 19 C here, heading for midnight. That's 66 F. A cool night for us, considering it's summer.

We had a relaxed casual lunch (my home-made sausage rolls, a favourite, pre-cooked yesterday and reheated today). We handed out presents slowly. In our family we hand them out one at a time, the youngest capable person gets the job of handing each gift out. We wait until it has been opened then hand out another. It can take hours but meanwhile we're snacking. This year I made sure that what we had to snack on was fairly healthy stuff - nuts, tzaziki, carrot sticks, fresh fruit. And sausage rolls, of course! So in fact we were snacking on lunch.

easy child 2/difficult child 2 & SIL2 arrived earlier than expected, they slipped in at the end of lunch so we fed them and kept opening gifts. Then difficult child 1 & daughter in law arrived, very early indeed. We hadn't expected them before evening but they got to mother in law's by mid afternoon.

This year our Christmas dinner was the evennig meal, because that was when we knew everyone would be there. Again we made it easy on ourselves by not cooking loads of food all at once. I had leftover roast chicken (from dinner last night), a pork roast which we cooked fresh and everything else was something we had prepared earlier in small quantities. And we had plenty. There were small amounts left on plates, enough to indicate that people were not short of food but not so much that we couldn't find someone able to clean up the plate. So no leftovers. Well, not like we usually have, anyway.

We've been playing Wii games alternating with watching movies. Tomorrow is another public holiday in Australia (Boxing Day) and again the stores will be mostly closed. The Sydney to Hobart yacht race begins at about midday, we always watch the start on TV then go to the headland an hour later to see the first yachts sail past.

mother in law has a houseful tonight. so do we. easy child 2/difficult child 2 & SIL2 asked especially to stay at our place because the spare room here has a tin roof and they love the sound of the rain on a tin roof, they find it soothing. I'm so tired, it's been busy today, but pleasant.

I hope you all enjoy your Christmas Day, stay safe and unstressed.

Marg
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Merry Christmas everyone!

Nothing much going on here today. We don't have to be anywhere so I plan on cooking crockpot style and we will hit the movies this afternoon. I need to get going so I can do stockings (have to do them the morning of as there is nowhere to put them to keep dogs and/or difficult child out of them) and then wake husband and difficult child.

Have a wonderful day today no matter your plans.
 

SRL

Active Member
Merry Christmas!!

difficult child is awake and downstairs opening his stocking gifts-he's allowed to before we get up. We're wondering why it's so quiet down there so I need to keep this short and go do a check.
:forchristmas:

TM, this is the key to no more kids standing around bugging you to open gifts. An older mother told me to let the kids hang the stockings in their bedrooms or bring them back to the bedroom once they've woken and make sure to fill it with enough to keep them occupied for an hour or so. Works like a charm! My daughter woke up at 5:45 am, got her stocking, read the book I included that I knew she'd buried her head in, I'm sure ate some chocolate, and then fell back asleep for an hour. It was worth the break in tradition to take the edge off the morning.

Two of the kids are up and we'll everyone else by 8:30 if they've not emerged by then. Gifts this morning and then a simple breakfast of waffles and bacon with maple syrup.
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Merry Christmas friends. Hope you have a peaceful day.

Linda, enjoy your snowy, warm, snuggly peaceful day.

TM, glad Duckie was patient. I know that feeling when you realize that your child has too much. We cut way back when difficult child turned 5. No lists allowed. :bah-humbug:Actually both boys have wonderful memories of family and fun and very little memory of gifts.

Rabbitt, have a wonderful day.

LDM, breakfast with ex mother in law sounds nice.

with-O hope there is no chaos in the quiet downstairs.

Marguerite, sounds like a lovely day with your family. I got a Wii for Christmas. I'm looking forward to it. I got the Wii sports with the fit program. I'm sure we will spend the day playing.

mustang, your day sounds fun.

SRL, you have a good idea for young children.

We had a lovely family dinner and opened gifts last night. So the boys are all sleeping this morning. I am enjoying the quiet with the fireplace and the puppies.
May you and your families enjoy this day.
 

Jeppy

New Member
Merry Christmas everyone!

I've been ducking in and out all year but didn't want to miss the chance to thank you all for your support and wish you a good holiday and a happy New Year.
 

Andy

Active Member
GOOD CHRISTMAS MORNING ALL!
I have about 1/2 hour so gotta keep this short. We did gift opening last night and will do Santa gifts when Diva's boyfriend gets here within the hour. The kids just got essentials of hats, mittens, pj's, difficult child a watch and Diva a necklace. Not much and I am again almost surprised at how grateful they were. You would think that they would both be demanding and angry about not getting "spectacular" gifts but they are always happy with what they get. I must have done something right along the way of raising these two.

We decided since the boyfriend has more gifts under the tree than we each will have from Santa that he may as well join us for morning gift opening.

My table is set. I love how my centerpiece turned out. Two dollar store 9 inch sprays, a few cranberry stems among the gold pinecones/fruit of the sprays, a white pillar candle holder with a smaller red candle holder placed upside down in it, baby Jesus from our nativity set on that, statues of the three wisemen around it.

I have not hosted Christmas for years and years. My heart had not been in it. This year I am enjoying decorating. I created a winter bathroom with snowmen and pinecones that will stay up all winter. My curtains for the living room are so pretty and make me feel happier about keeping the room picked up to enjoy them. It was fun bringing out my Christmas dishes and washing them. I love setting a pretty table. I am doing something different this year - using the tiny coffee cup saucers for table treats. I will put chocolates and such on each.

As usual, there was a challenge of redoing plans for the week. I wanted to finish cleaning on Wednesday and last minute shopping on Thursday but with the storm approaching, I had to switch those plans and hope I had everything after shopping. Even went shopping Tuesday night for "basics" in case we couldn't get out on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday was able to go back out and get others items after the menu was made.
I am so used to switching gears all the time.

We are not getting the amounts of snow forcasted making it easy to get out for church last night. This is just a regular normal winter snow for us in town - I am sure the winds are creating havoc out in the open. Diva's boyfriend is coming in about 20 miles away in the country but it looks o.k. here. I think he will make it.

Well, I need to get dressed for when Diva's boyfriend gets here. I have a good feeling about this guy. He has given me good impressions the few times I have spent time with him. He treats Diva well. It has only been a little over a month so time will tell but there is a connection there I haven't seen in others.

Have a great day everyone. Find ways to make your kids laugh.


 
K

Kjs

Guest
I realize this is a bit late to join the morning thread. Lol. But I had to be to work by noon and it was a busy morning.

I so wish I had flannel sheets and warm pj's.

Really good idea to have them get their socks first. But, I forgot to do the socks last night when I got home.

easy child was up early, husband slept in and difficult child didn't get up. Had to go wake him up. He isn't feeling well.

Did the gift thing. difficult child got a LCD TV. Which easy child hooked up for him and they were playing their new XBOX game on it.

easy child recieved his iPhone and a gas card. His car will stay parked and he will use mine. That's when I know he has no gas. He also got the basics..hat, mittens that open to gloves where the fingers show.

My boys are all big Hockey fans. Especially for Pittsburgh Penguins. husband's home town. easy child bought tickets for him and husband to go see college hockey game. About 90 miles away. But the kicker is the Stanley Cup will be there and they can have their picture's taken with it. Since the Penguins won the Stanley cup last year it is pretty neat.

Weather is raining still, but suppose to freeze and snow later in the day. Looks like an ugly drive home at midnight.

Enjoy what is left of this holiday weekend.
 

dreamer

New Member
Hope noone minds I decided to say hi here and say that yes, thats what we do, too. the kids are allowed to do stockings without the entire family present, and amuse themselves. I set out non perishable breakfasty type snacks and cocoa in a thermos for them. and later when we all are awake, we have a simple bite to eat, french toast casserole and fresh fruit or a few scrambled eggs (or eggbeaters) and settle in to read the hristmas Story and sing Happy Birthday. & then the youngest here also passes gifts and we go youngest to oldest and open and examine each persons gifts one at a time, with breaks for drink refills or to tuck away gifts to peoples rooms, cuz I buy lots of little things instead of any big ticket items. Toothbrushes and requested toothpastes, shaveing creams of different types, socks wrapped one pair at a time etc. LOL. and I often will nest gifts in assorted size boxes of gradually increaseing size each gift wrapped and nestled in another box etc to amuse everyone. we play christmas carols softly in the background and laugh a lot. Dinner is a light buffet that can be nibbled along the way. So gift opening last a long time here, and then the kids play board games and I watch. (to head off problems) It is always a PJ day with cozy soft socks, too.

I like the holiday, but I sure am exhausted now. LOL
 
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