1) Jack knocking on my bathroom -- yes, BATHROOM -- door at 6:30 a.m. and then, once I emerged, staring up at me and saying, "It's Christmas!"2) Hannah in the living room after aforementioned wake-up call, shaking her head and declaring, "I TRIED to hold him off until 7, but I'm sorry. I couldn't do it anymore. I . . . I just couldn't."
3) Randy walking into the living room, squinting and holding his head exactly like The Old Man in "A Christmas Story."
4) Jack looking into the sunroom, where the Christmas tree and all the presents were, and saying, "There's a FREAKING BIKE in there!" Classy.
5) Unwrapping my new Snuggie, a present from Jack. His hints were: "You'll laugh, but it's useful," and, "It starts with an S." :)
6) Getting the most incredible gift from my friend Sandy: a beautiful pair of hand-knit mittens. For years now, I have watched her create masterpieces with yarn -- socks, scarves, blankets, mittens, you name it -- during our girls' ballet classes, and I'd always joke, "Are you done with my mittens yet? I can't wait to wear my mittens!!" I'd even try things on and say, "Yes, yes, this will work very nicely..." It became a running joke. I never DREAMED she would actually bless me with a pair. This morning, Hannah handed me a box that was tagged from "A little elf." It was the fiddlehead mittens! Sandy's note said, "Who could possibly enjoy these more than you?!" True. I was speechless. What a treasure. (I had to chuckle, too, thinking about Sandy saying, "THERE!! Now stop hounding me!!" Hee.)
7) Making jambalaya (Bo Rader's recipe) to go with the ham, potatoes, pie, etc. Our family loves that recipe so much, we might just have it every Christmas as well as on Super Bowl Sunday, which is when I usually make it. Heck, we might just have jambalaya for every single holiday from here on out.
8) Using my NEW KNIVES to make the jambalaya. Yes, I said NEW KNIVES! NEW KNIVES!! My hubby's the best. :)
9) Randy feeling better after several days with a horrible cold and sinus infection. Antibiotics prescription called out by our doc turned out to be his favorite Christmas present. ;-)
10) Uncle Brad being released from the hospital and being able to join us for at least part of Christmas Day. And Uncle Davy being home from Dallas for Christmas for the first time in several years.
11) Hannah hooking up her iPod to the computer for the first time, watching it sync and saying, "It's doing things! Things are happening!!" I think she may have earbuds in her ears for the next, oh, 12 years or so.
12) Carl's traditional Christmas Eve get-together, complete with the traditional Chicken McNuggets, Coke salad and plates of brownies marked "Nuts" and "No Nuts."
13) Phone call from the Perez family on Christmas Eve, making sure I knew that Papa Perez was posting old cheerleading videos of me on Facebook. Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like embarrassing videos of your mullet-headed high school self doing dance routines to Gloria Estefan.
14) Laughing hysterically as we set up and shot our 2010 Christmas card photo. That's right, we may be a little late with our cards and letter this year, but it'll be worth it. (Or maybe it won't be worth it, but at least you'll get something besides holiday bills in the mail. So stop griping.)
Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope yours was as crazy and happy and unforgettable as ours. I'd love it if you posted your favorite holiday moment here. :)
