Christmas

Christmas came this year on the heels of a blizzard, which was fun and exciting. It snowed the weekend before Christmas, and while Chris lay up in bed resting his back that had been thrown out of whack the Friday before the weekend, Aminah and I shoveled and romped, and walked and played in the snow. We did a tiny bit of sledding down a not-so-steep hill in our nearby park. Aminah ate snow freely, and helped with dusting off the cars and shoveling. I made maple candy in the snow, (a maple taffy), and Chris and I enjoyed it, but it was too sticky for Aminah. She preferred to eat plain snow, which is fine by me :)






As the week progressed, Aminah and I spent the mornings crafting, doing laundry and tidying up for Christmas Day. Aminah's Nana and Grandpa (my mom and dad) took care of her in the afternoons and early evenings while I picked Chris up from work and drove him to the chiropractor. The snow made parking tricky, so I dropped him off, parked in a nearby gas station and crocheted while listening to a biography of Jane Austen on tape, until he was finished. It was actually quite relaxing for me, aside from the snowy/icy driving. We then ate a quick dinner at my parents house, brought Aminah home and snuggled into bed. All the Christmas cards and packages I intended to mail out got put on hold until I could get a more genuine moment to do them.

Chrismtas Eve came, and Aminah and I celebrated by having brunch with good friends of ours, and Aminah's uncle Abe (my brother). We enjoyed a delicious semi-potluck of foods, and fun conversation. There were lots of adults around to take turns playing with the kids, so no one got left out. Then we picked Chris up early from work, his back feeling quite a bit bit better by then, and ran some last minute errands together. Since I lost the time I would have spent prepping food for a traditional Christmas dinner, I decided to have pasta instead. My mom had bought some frozen stuffed shells (from a renown Philadelphia company for the best premade Italian food). We stopped in at my parents house to pick up the shells, sauce, and Italian Parmigiano Reggiano and headed into Narberth for some more homemade sauce from the little grocery store there, just in case we needed more. (And some baby goldfish crackers for Aminah). We ate a simple dinner together, much less formal than usual, and with just the three of us, but we were all exhausted, and we needed sleep before the big day. Aminah unwrapped her gifts from my family in Iowa: a princess puppet which thrilled her to no end, and some wooden reindeer figures, which were also very exciting to play with before Santa came with his own reindeer. Aminah went to bed, not as early (or quickly) as we would have liked, but early enough for Santa to come. I had intended to call my relatives in Iowa Christmas Eve night, but after getting Aminah to sleep, and finishing wrapping and setting out gifts (as we give gifts alongside Santa Claus), I was ready for bed. I slipped under the covers and slept well until early the next morning.

Christmas morning came with gifts under the tree, homemade cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting, homemade eggnog, and hot coffee and tea for the grown ups. I made Aminah a playscape out of wool, for her to play with her little wooden animal figures. Santa brought her a ukulele, some beeswax candles, and a stuffed robin bird to play with. Aminah also got a set of Russian nesting dolls from Chris, and a small handmade Waldorf inspired mermaid (that we picked up at a craft fair), and my favorite book as a kid Each Peach Pear Plum. She got a soft brown hooded sweater with matching pants from Great Aunt Diane and put on the sweater declaring, "I'm just like Little Red Robin Hood!" Our neighbor (disguised as Santa Claus) left Aminah a little stuffed pig on our car, which we brought in the night before, as it was supposed to be freezing rain on Christmas day. The pig was the most prized gift of the day. The pig, and the princess. She told everyone about the pig, and wanted to play pig and princess all day long.






Uncle Abe came by around 1pm, and brought Aminah his leftover cardboard box from his new stove, which he cut a door into for her and she was thrilled. We strung some white lights inside so she could see, and eventually added a window. She loved her little house, and was playing with all her gifts as the week went on.





Nana and Grandpa came, bearing gifts galore: books, shaving cream (her favorite bath "toy" for making herself into a snowman, and "cleaning" the tub), some little animal figures, craft supplies, a dvd, and her very own digital camera. We enjoyed fettuccine alfredo, stuffed shells, and garlic bread, followed by my mom's annual Bûche de Noël. After everyone left, we had an early night, with a bath and bedtime stories, then restful sleep.

The next day we celebrated Christmas with Hope and Grandmom Betty (my stepdaughter and mother-in-law). We went to Grandmom's house, because of the rain, toting our gifts. Both Aminah and Chris fell asleep in the car on the way there, (did I mention the exhausting week we had leading up to Christmas?) but woke up soon arriving. We watched Christmas movies, and ate more stuffed shells and Christmas cookies. We took turns opening gifts and enjoying playing with and generally checking out our new goods. Aminah was excited to recieve a LiteBrite from Hope, and a tea set, Cabbage Patch baby, and dvd's from Grandmom, along with a new portable dvd player from Grandmom.




We had three days in a row of Christmasing, which was a lot of fun. I was pleased to have all the beautiful snow while it lasted, and was a little sad to see it all melt away in the rain. We did, however, have an entire week of Chris home from work to enjoy, and were very pleased with that! We were also very excited to have a week of recovering all together from all the busy-ness of the previous month.