Its a wrap....

I am sitting with my paws up.

The Collective are in bed, DH is enjoying his Ipod NANO from The Collective. He is currently downloading podcasts of interest, and telling me how cool it is.

Technology is very cool to those of us who grew up with black and white tv's and no remote controls. We were talking the other day, about how a looming deployment is probably in the future, and how he can play video games online with our son and daughter, and what a cool boding thing that will be to do.

Dinner was great, the prime rib was yummy, as were the twice baked potatoes I made. The sour cream raisin pie was to die for, even if my meringue was so terrible I took it off of the pie. (Does anyone know a fool proof way to make meringue?) The pumpkin was yummy as well.

The Collective did pretty well considering a lot of gifts were necessities from boring old Mom. SR was getting so discouraged after the first 5 packages of much needed cold weather clothing, underwear, wool socks, and the like I thought he was going to cry.
He did get Sim City Creator for the Wii from his sissy and was thrilled. PN got a fur real puppy from Grammy she loved, and the paper dolls from my Sissy were a hit.

I was exhausted this morning when the day began. There is a lot of preparations that go into Christmas, especially when you have children. There is the trying to shop sans kids, hiding gifts, hiding Santa's wrapping paper, wrapping the gifts, the trip to Santa, the leaving food out for elves, reindeer, and Santa. It is like acting for a month. but the smiles, and goofy faces, and hugs over the smallest things like monkey pajamas, it is awesome. Nothing beats children on Christmas morning. Seriously.

We had company today, my Father and his lady came, as did my Brother, and Sissy. We had a wonderful visit. It is so nice having family close. I did miss my MIL, as did DH and The Collective. Particularly DH, today was bittersweet for him.

the holiday is done, and I am off to take a long soak in my tub, with new lavender soap I got in my stocking. I have a 4 day weekend to enjoy!