Whew!

We made it through another exhausting holiday season, well, through the craziest part anyway. New Year's is a pretty mellow event for us. The girls did well with their presents. We cut xmas back quite a bit this year, and we both felt much better for getting away from some of the materialism of the season. We were pleasantly surprised that our girls didn't complain--didn't even seem to notice. They were very happy, so we were very happy!

I spent the entire day, yes the ENTIRE day of the 23rd cooking. It was unpleasant, but it was wonderful to get up on xmas eve day and know that all my cooking was taken care of and all the wrapping was done. As per our tradition, Denny came over in the afternoon for our pre-family-party party. We had butterballs, as always. I had a migraine, which seriously impaired my ability to enjoy any part of the day or night. It was really crappy timing! Anyway, the butterballs were particularly delicious, if I do say so myself. We all went over to my mom's for the big family party. Again, other than the horrible migraine, that went well. As always, once the extended family left we had our xmas with Michael and family. They still had to drive back to Appleton that night, so they didn't stay too much longer. All the kids got to open their gifts from each other, and Michael's family opened all their gifts. We stayed a bit longer and then came home so the girls could each open their one gift and get to bed in time for Santa.

Luciana left a picture and a delicious chocolate vegan cupcake on the mantle for Santa.

Jasper supervises the gift opening from the newell post. He always relaxes in the weirdest positions!

L is eager to dig into the gifts!

Xmas morning, my parents came over for our traditional breakfast of tofu scrambler, biscuits & gravy, and sweet rolls. My children didn't eat much, as they were ready to get to the presents. Santa disregarded my wishes, as he so often does, and brought Luciana the moon sand that she has been wanting for so long. She was thrilled and has played with it quite a bit already. It is as messy as I feared--but fun. Dej was thrilled to receive the iPod she desperately wanted. Yes, another iPod. This time, however, we also gave her a hard acrylic case to protect it. In the spirit of cutting back, Mark and I didn't get gifts for each other. We got the LOST season 3 DVD set as our joint gift to each other, but we didn't exactly wait until xmas to start watching it. Luciana made wonderful gifts for both Mark and I, and Dej picked out nice gifts for us as well. My best gift, however, was a small piece of folded paper with a bow on it. I opened it to find a note from Mark stating that he was now a vegan. It's not an easy step at all to go from vegetarian to vegan. Now I only have to pick on Dej for eating pus cream and other such delights.

Dej gives me her ugly, fake camera smile, even though she is ecstatic about the iPod.

While we watched our traditional xmas movie, "A Christmas Story" (love it!!), Libby and Camille (two of my parents' cats) watch a rogue fly on the ceiling.

L. wearing a new outfit from Grandma C. & Grandpa J., posing by her triple doll beds. Grandpa (my dad) made these for her three American Girl dolls. They can be taken apart and stacked several different ways or left free standing. We went out tonight with her JoAnn's giftcard (again, from my parents) to select fabric to make bedding with.

The day after xmas, Mark and Luciana went to his parents' and just returned today. I stayed home to work on a consulting project. I spent some time trying to reclaim my messy house, but I still have work to do on that front. It's SO hard for all of us to leave town together, because of all the animals. My parents get stuck with tons of work. I feel guilty that they are stuck with the work and guilty that the animals aren't getting the attention and exercise they are used to and that they need. I really, really missed having my little girl around. It's especially hard at her bedtime, when I'm so used to reading and cuddling at that time. I talked to them (M & L) on the phone a couple of times. She told me she thought of me 13 times that day, mostly about funny things I do sometimes. I might want to get to the bottom of that one. I can't think of 13 funny things that I've done, so it makes me wonder what she was thinking about.

Lila got her stitches out, so she doesn't have to wear the collar anymore. She was so happy to have it off and hasn't slowed down since then. No more bobble-headed kitten to provide comic relief. Her little mouth ulcers seem to be clearing up, too, which means she's not super stenchy anymore. I'm so hoping she doesn't get them back. My mouth, however, has a new crop of nasty painful canker sores. They really suck. Here's a shot of our little bobble head relaxing in the xmas wrap box.