My wonderful week

There were so many wonderful things this week that I'm struggling to decide what to write.

We celebrated Christmas in my husband's childhood home. It's a beautiful old home.












My mother in law does a bang up job decorating for the holidays. She thinks of every detail, right down to Chestnut scented soap and real pine boughs around the house. We all have embroidered stockings hanging on the railing.

The pictures/art on the walls even change with the seasons. This Santa face is my favorite. The books that are scattered around the house are Christmas themed too. There are lights everywhere. The outdoor lights emit a light glow through the snow. It's lovely to look at.

My mother in law bakes and cooks and basically spoils us rotten for the few days we are there.

Christmas Eve was spent at the house with just the 11 of us in the immediate family. This is a change from years past when the whole crew from the Cities would come down. We missed seeing all of the cousins and Aunts and Uncles. They will gather for New Year's Eve, but we won't be making the trip.


Christmas morning we opened gifts. We had asked for either consumables or items that we could put to use. I am happy to report that every single gift that we received we can use up or, in the case of my new food strainer, use for years to come. Receiving gifts that serve a purpose make me happy, the holiday seems a bit less superficial and materialistic.

Christmas afternoon we headed over to Grandpa's to celebrate with the extended family. This year we had 32 attending. Only two people were missing. The house was packed full and it was wonderful to chat the afternoon away.

Great Grandpa and almost all of the great grandchildren

Christmas Day

Christmas morn, we woke up, made egg bake (nom nom nom) and opened presents. Ashley screamed with excitement over the camcorder and Rock Band 2. I screamed with excitement for the socks, hand cream, coffee and book. Christopher didn't quite scream, but seemed pleased with his books, tea cup and journal.

Rock Band 2 took a while to set up and get ready. Then we found out that the disc was all scratched up. A BRAND NEW GAME!!!! Since it's Christmas day, we couldn't return it. We ran to Blockbuster (thank goodness for places that are open on Christmas Day!) and rented the game til Tuesday. By then, we should be able to get the disc replaced. We rocked the suburbs. And we don't even live in the suburbs. That's how good we were. My throat hurts from all the singing.

We had chili and corn bread for supper and watched the 3rd Librarian movie. Christopher and Ashley are up to bed, and I am picking up a bit and reading the news, then going to bed to read. It was a good day.

Since I started celebrating Christmas, after Ashley was born in 1996, I have struggled over the holidays. Not growing up celebrating Christmas was odd. We didn't even use the day as an excuse to get together with family, we just pretty much sat around and bitched about how all the stores were closed because of all the damn Christians. Christmas was awful for me as a kid. I'm still learning. The first 2 Christmases Ashley and I had were just about presents. Then we met Christopher, got married and became damn Christians ourselves. We suddenly had this huge family with these great Christmas traditions. I loved it and hated it at the same time. Holidays make me bitter. This was the first year that we skipped Christmas with Christopher's family. The weather has been awful and we just had a bad feeling about traveling. I thought it was going to be awful. I was just starting to get used to these big family Christmases and now we were going to be home, just the three of us, with no traditions of our own.

Christopher took over. He took us to the mall on Christmas eve, we made our lists, checked them twice, exchanged them and shopped for each other. We went home and played games and watched the X Files. We didn't do much, but we were together, really doing things together. It was great. My husband saved Christmas! At least he made this one great. I will always look forward to our big family Christmases for the future, but this little Madison Urban Christmas will never be forgotten. :)

It's almost Christmas. yea?

Christmas shopping is done. In fact, I think I may have over bought. I am pretty sure that we will have a few extra generic gifts left over.

I have the Christmas cards ready to mail, I just have to pop them in a mailbox.

I do still have to wrap presents which is the worst part if the whole holiday.

Christopher and I just bought gifts for ourselves. It is so much nicer to get exactly what we want. I got a few new outfits, several books and some snow boots.

Christopher got a video game, a new pocket watch, some books and the entire X-Files series on DVD. 201 episodes. Wowza.

I am not looking forward to the traveling, I hate spending that much time in the car and I am a homebody. I wish that we were geographically closer to family so we could spend time together but still come home at night.

I went to the Opthomologist about my eyes. It turns out that I have eczema on my lower eyelids, which explains the redness and swelling. I have a steroid cream to use now. I'm not really happy to steroids so close to my eyes, but I guess I have to.
My presription changed significantly. I decided not to get new frames, I just got new lenses. I am hard on my lenses, so I got the top of the line this time. Over $300 just for the lenses! But these are lightweight and thinner than regular plastic lenses. The are scratch resistant and non reflective. The prescription changed so much that I got motion sickness after putting on the new prescription! Things still look wierd. Everything looks like it is in 3D. It's like I am seeing everything for the first time!