A Quiet Little Christmas

As it turned out this year, #1 and I spent a very quiet Christmas with the boys. Well, as quiet as a Christmas can be with two boys aged 4-1/2 and almost 2. What I mean is, our family was alone on the ranch. There was no one else around for miles and miles.

C.G. had gone to her oldest son's house, and stayed an extra night or so. She wasn't around on Christmas Eve, and didn't arrive until about 2:PM on Christmas day.

RH and Wifey were up in the Big City, with their kids and grandkids. They've been gone over a week now.

So the ranch was nice and quiet. As far as adults go. Just me and #1. It was nice not to have commitments or big plans or tons of impending guests the way it happens other years. Sure, C.G. came home, and a friend of ours came down for dinner in the afternoon, but there wasn't the pressure of other years. The "need" to shuttle the boys back and forth between houses for one thing after another.

We just had our quiet little Christmas Eve hike/picnic; tracked Santa's progress on the Internet; ate dinner; then read The Night Before Christmas; set out cookies; a gift; and a bottle of water for Santa (we're running out of milk, not going to town until the 26th at the earliest. Santa got water); filled stockings with dog treats for all the dogs (seven, at last count) and baby kitty; put the boys to bed on time. (after I promised H-Bomb he could eat cookies for breakfast because it was too late to eat cookies and he already had his teeth brushed. I know.)

In the morning, the boys slept in until almost 7:AM (trust me, it's late for our boys) and then #1 went out to turn on the generator so we could power the Christmas tree lights. Oh, who am I kidding, we needed coffee! I wrestled with the boys, trying to keep Sawed Off in bed until #1 returned so we could see their excited little faces light up when they saw their presents.

#1 got back, we took the boys out to the living room and spent the morning opening gifts. It took all morning because H-Bomb oohs and aahs over every little thing: "LOOK!! Santa gave me dinosaur stickers! Wow! Socks!!! That was good of Santa to give me socks." (I'm not kidding here). And also, Sawed Off seemed to have, until almost 11:AM, some kind of aversion to opening gifts. So we were all finished and he had most of his presents still stacked up in front of him. Somehow H-Bomb convinced Sawed Off that it would be, I don't know, FUN, to open his presents, and then he got on it, wrapping paper scraps a-flyin'.

Then there were the cookies for breakfast, and some chocolate candy (also slowed down the gift unwrapping) and candy canes. Later we tried to force the boys to eat oatmeal, but it didn't really work.

I guess I'm just trying to describe our leisurely Christmas morning, which was kind of nice as a change. Usually Christmas down here is full of visitors and meals and traveling up to Grammy's and back each and every day. And while it's nice to have people around and things to do and places to go, sometimes it makes me tired. And I just feel like curling up in our own little house, snuggling our own little family.

So I'm happy that this year, we got to do that.

Then, in the afternoon, after we had watched a movie or two and the boys played with toys and I made Coconut Sugar Snowflake Cookies, we packed up and cooked dinner at Grammy's. And that was nice too. We tried a new recipe for Venison Roast with Blueberry-Maple Sauce, with saffron rice on the side. It was delicious. Everyone raved about it; even Sawed Off said "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM." We drank wine, listened to Christmas music, opened more presents.

H-Bomb and #1 played some kind of game where I couldn't look at them, they were hiding behind the couch cushions, but I would sneak up on them. H-Bomb and Sawed Off gave me some new perfume this year, and at one point, from behind the cushions, H-Bomb whispered to Daddy, "I can smell Mommy coming!" And it was just about the cutest thing ever.

Sawed Off collapsed into sleep, and later we loaded everything up and drove home. It was a perfect Christmas.

I hope yours was, too.