The Holiday Recap

Well, the holidays are finally over, and I can’t say that I’m sorry to see the back of them. Some years, Halloween gets you in the Fall feeling, and then it’s Thanksgiving and you’re enjoying seeing friends and family; the days are long and stretch before you with time to shop, wrap, bake and generally just enjoy the holiday. But then there’s years like this one where (despite the fact that it got cold) it never really felt like Fall, Thanksgiving came and went- but it still felt like early November even though Christmas was days away, and there was no time (or money) to do much of anything.

It was during an late Nov. trip to Disneyland that Jeff started complaining that his left heel hurt. “Hmmm…maybe plantar facisitis” we all said. But no. “Ahhh, a cracked heel bone!” the doctor said. So Jeff spent the rest of the year hobbling along on his cane, which Tenley ran off with at every available opportunity.

We missed Hannukah at Scott & Gaynor’s (again!) this year because Ten & Jeff decided to get the stomache flu the day of the party. ::: sigh::: No latkes again.

Tenley did go to see Santa, and at 3 years old we finally got our first non screaming/crying/trying to get away picture. She informed the attending elf that she had a “short list” and indeed asked the big guy for only 2 things: a rocking horse and a Cinderella dress. I informed Santa that I had him hooked up.

I had no free time during the holidays because I was being one of Santa’s elves and working on the above mentioned “rocking horse”. I had aquired a 1993 Hedstrom spring horse (which I know I am at least the 3rd owner of) and it needed a little TLC, so I spent 8 weeks completely restoring it.

Christmas Eve was fun because this is the first year Ten is really starting to “get” what’s going on (next year should be even better). Her favourite part of the experience is still the paper shredding. Paper is shredded and the tissue flys, and the gift emerges and she says “Ooooh look Mommy! It’s Baby Mulan!” as she tosses the box to the side and says “I want to open another present!” The only gift that caused her to pause at all was the Disney Princess Vanity that Grandpa Duke gave her… and the only 2 gifts that she stopped and wanted to play with immediately were the Cinderella dress from Cousin Kari & her kids, and the very cool mailbox from Grandma & Grandpa. The only thing not fun was that it was obvious that the “cold” we had been treating for 8 days was not getting better and was in fact, getting worse and going to require a trip to the doctor.

Christmas morning came and Ten was delighted to find that Santa had indeed left her a rocking horse whom she named “Molasses” after all the various equines in the Backyardagains. She spent the day happily playing with her toys…and running a fever…and vomiting (probably from all the junk she was eating). We decided not to go to my extended family’s Christmas gathering, but when we told her we weren’t going to go, she burst into tears. So we relented and traded an hour of laying on the couch watching her new “Barbie of Swan Lake” DVD for going to the party. We forbid anyone at the party from feeding her anything, and she did pretty well. She helped everyone open their gifts, and conned Aunty Meg into opening the Bella Dancerella she bought for her- so we got to see both of them playing with it. Aunty Lisa bought her her own digital camera- so be on the lookout for “photography by Tenley” very soon.

As usual, the Tiny Empress had quite a haul. The loot list included a bean bag, a Learn Through Music, clothes & shoes, books, 2 baby dolls, a board game, DVDs, a Barbie, accessories for the baby dolls (including hand made ones!), sheets for a big girl bed, and playdough...just to name some of it! I'm trying to casually weed out old toys so I can make room for new ones...which seem to be rather large.

But wait...there's more....