It's a Holly Jolly Christmas

It's nearly Christmas, and it's been another interesting month to be sure. This past week especially - a week that's usually reserved for Christmas planning and merriment - has been particularly... well, difficult. In the end though, in between hospital visits and gall bladder attacks, we pulled it off. We wrapped presents. We sent Christmas cards. I managed to make cookies with the boys. Out with the peanut butter kisses and black and whites (too depressing to make fat-free versions) and in with the fat free chewy chocolate mints, and fat free sugar cookies. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that my oreo balls were very nearly as good with reduced fat cookies and fat free cream cheese. Last night we snuggled up and watched Dumb and Dumber. While not your typical holiday fare, it was fun nonetheless, especially for my little (and big) Jim Carrey fans.

We bought a family Christmas present this week too - a 2004 Toyota Sequoia, with lots of space for us, the boys, and new little McGrail whose arrival is fast approaching. We loved it as-is, right off the lot, except for the tires and wheels. Mike desperately wanted to change them, and I asked him to wait to awhile, just because we didn't need the project or the expense at the moment. He waited 3 whole days before he bought new ones. :)

Another early Christmas present? Lindsay, a beautiful blue dumbo rat. We first saw that the store had blues on a Sunday. Paxton and I had fallen in love with them months ago, the first time we saw them. Mike wasn't keen on the idea of adding another rat at the moment, so we went home without one. On Wednesday, I went back with the boys and bought her. :) I think I'm sensing a pattern here? She is sweet and friendy, and the perfect addition to the crew.



We have a busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, so Santa is coming a day early. The boys are wildly excited that they get to get ready for Santa tonight, on the 23rd. Right now they are happily rolling another batch of Oreo balls, and later we'll relax with The Santa Clause, Elf and our traditional Christmas Eve reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas and the nativity story. Tonight they'll put out their milk and cookies for Santa. After a crazy month and an even crazier week... at the moment, everything is just as it should be.