merry christmas!! well, not anymore..

christmas came and went. kinda sad when it went. made me think...there's all this preparation and then its over just like that. kinda like a wedding except on a lower scale obviously since weddings take months and months of preparation and from what i gather, a whole lot more stress. but anyways - back to christmas. in the mccoy household there is a tradition of christmas eve 'goody nite.' the whole fam goes to christmas eve service at church and then comes back home to a delicious spread containing all of our favorite snacky foods. basically its gluttony on a table. theres my all-time fav - 7 layer dip, chips and queso, pigs in a blanket, cookies, candy, etc. etc. its like an edible christmas. so after we stuff ourselves silly, then the kids get to open a christmas eve present - usually preselected by the parents. goody nite is something i will surely incorporate into my family traditions bc its like the greatest thing ever. who cares that youre probably consuming enough calories to last you till new years - its christmas!

so then we spend christmas like probably most families do. we get up earlier than we want, see the presents santa brought, open the stockings, open the wrapped gifts etc. then we have christmas lunch with the ham and all the fixins. then we play with our gifts...people start heading off to bed for naps..and by mid late afternoon christmas is over. and its sad. we had christmas at my sisters house and by about 4 my parents had gone home, my sister was napping, the kiddos were watching a movie with my brother, my brother in law was asleep in the recliner and i didnt really know what to do with myself so i went home too.

but all to say, christmas really was great. its fun to see how excited the kids get when opening their presents. every present ellie opened was accompanied by a gasp and 'oh wow!' and every present berkeley opened was followed by 'just what i always wanted!!!' it was great. ellie is in a stage where she loves anything associated with princesses, pretty girly things like hair clips, and evidently herself. her favorite present was a little handheld mirror - she couldnt get enough of herself. another great part of christmas is the gifts that my brother in law, eric, gives my sister. hes not a big fan of shopping and it shows. but its always worth a lot of laughs. granted he did get my sis an ipod but i think she specifically asked for that so if he come thru with that one then he would be sleeping outside. the highlight this year however was when my sister opened this big box from him and inside was an assortment of various gourds and fruits. there was some sort of a squash..a mango...a papaya...a prickly pear..and another unidentifiable something. you should have seen my sisters face when she started pulling them out - priceless. yep, thats christmas in my family. luckily i didnt get any weird fruits as any of my presents. my two best presents were probably some pure beech sheets for my bed - if you dont know what pure beech sheets are then you havent lived. they are like the most wonderful things you can sandwhich yourself between. oh and my second best present was a photo printer. basically i dont ever have to go anywhere to develop pictures ever again! i have my own little photo lab at home - its great!

so yeah christmas was great. and lets not forget the real reason for the holiday - JESUS was born!! and thats a great reason for celebration.