Our Christmas

Christmas was insane.

As I’ve already written, my mom got here at 1 a.m. the morning of Christmas Eve. After Noah and I woke her up that morning, the three of us went out and did a little shopping. We went to Babies R Us, mainly to look at cribs….but the ONE crib that I liked that fit my requirements (convertible with a drop side – I’m too short to NOT have a drop side) was more than what Mom wanted to spend. She bought a few things for the baby and a stuffed monkey for Noah. Then we walked over to Michael’s so that Mom could get a flag box. My brother carried two flags throughout his deployment and gave one to Mom.

Then we went to Target to check out their cribs and look for some stuff for Jake. We didn’t find anything, so Mom just got him a gift card, and got MORE stuff for the baby.

Then K-Mart to look at THEIR cribs. Didn’t like theirs, either, but I did get a cute sweater that only ended up costing me $5 since it was on sale and Mom used her employee discount.

When we got home, Jake went to Wal Mart. After he got back, Mom and I went. We got Noah’s dresser and I did find a crib there that I like, but I convinced Mom to wait to purchase it since the box was much too heavy for her to lift alone and I certainly couldn’t help. We also ran over to the Verizon store and I got Jake a new case for his phone since his old one was starting to come apart. But he doesn’t like it so now I’m using it. Eh, whatever.

After Mom and I got back, we opened presents. Noah got a Little Tikes workbench, the picnic table I’ve already mentioned, a Laugh and Learn piano, a TMX Cookie Monster, a HUGE container of Mega Bloks, wooden alphabet blocks, lots of little cars, a toddler bedding set, a singing Spiderman, and all kinds of other stuff, including clothes. Seriously, too much for me to even remember it all. Jake got a lot of Kasey Kahne stuff and the gift card. I got a cute little music box, some candles that light up, some ornaments, some scrapbooking software…..and in my stocking I found a Britney Spears Fantasy gift set and a $75 gift card to Barnes & Noble (which I used today and purchased three new Jodi Picoult books and a sewing book) from Jake. Also a very sweet card – he had intended to put the gift card in the regular card, but the store put the gift card in a little box so he just left it alone.

We also got a Wal Mart gift card and Best Buy gift card from Dan and Riss, and I got a Mary Kay gift set from them as well. They sent down a ton of stuff for Noah, and a big package of diapers and a few other things for the baby.

Tuesday morning, we headed to Jacksonville. I drove most of the way, but once we were about half an hour away Jake decided I wasn’t driving fast enough so he drove the rest of the way. We got to Granny’s because the Christmas meal was being done there, and oh man, practically everyone in the family showed up! And yes, even Brandi was there, which is why I’m surprised there wasn’t any drama.

We did presents over at Granny’s as well. Jake got me Seasons 5 and 6 of Smallville, but Season 5 will have to be returned since I already got that one for him! Great minds think alike and all that…..Anyway, he also got me Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD (in a gift set with three bookmarks), Robin Hood: Men In Tights, the Teen Style Stuff Pack for The Sims 2, and of course, that nail set that I already knew about. I feel like I’m forgetting something, though….but heck, I feel like I’m forgetting something that Dan and Riss got us, too. See, we were overloaded with gifts!

JR and Louisa got Jake a strategy guide for World of Warcraft, some wooden puzzles for Noah, and a huge bottle of Britney Spears Curious for me. Jake’s cousin Josh and Aunt Sandy also had presents for Noah, which surprised the hell out of us. Jake got some clothes from his dad, and I got a pants and zip up hoodie set…..I’m not terribly fond of it, and I’m not even sure if it will fit, especially right now! Noah got more toys, including a duplicate set of cars that he had already received from my mom (but it’s no big deal, because the boy loves playing with his cars!) and his very own set of handcuffs, which is hilarious because he’s recently discovered Daddy’s handcuffs and loves to wander off with them!

Tuesday night was a bit eventful, though. We went over to Daddy’s and learned very quickly that regardless of how well Noah does with walking on our dining room floor, Noah+socks+wood floor in Daddy’s living room is NOT a good combination. He slipped and fell face first and busted his top lip open. Freaked me out because the first thing I noticed was blood on his left temple, and I thought he’d busted his head, but it turned out that he’d just smeared the blood up there. My boy is such a trooper, though; he hardly cried at all. But I was very careful to only put him in his pajamas that don’t have feet and to keep his socks off at all times while we were over there after that little incident!

Wednesday we visited with Denise (Jay’s mom) and spent some more time with Granny. Denise gave us $10 to take Noah out for ice cream, and there just so happens to be a nice little ice cream place across the street from Granny’s. So we got ice cream for the three of us and Granny and headed over there. Noah wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but then he started gobbling it up!

Wednesday night, we went out to eat with Jay and then went to the pool hall. And no, Noah wasn’t with us – he finally went to bed just before we left, and Carol kept an ear out for him. I normally feel a little awkward around Jay….not sure why, I just do. But we all had a good time, which I was glad for.

Thursday, we went to see Becky and her boys. Braden is so dang big, and so smart, too! Matthew, her new baby, is rather big as well, and just a sweetheart. After we left her place, we went to Hardee’s for lunch. After we got back to Daddy’s, I laid down for a nap. When I woke up, I had a very pleasant surprise..Carley was there! Carol had called Dawn and Dawn had agreed to let Carley come over a day early so that Jake and I could see her. She is, of course, so much taller than the last time we saw her, and just so much more grown up looking in general.

I did want to throttle some people Thursday night, though. Carol’s granddaughter Alexis was also over, and her and Carley were going nuts. Daddy was being his usual loud self, and in general, the volume was more than I could take, especially since it was keeping Noah up. We weren’t able to get him to bed until after 9 and that thoroughly ticked me off, because we had enough problems all week with getting him to take naps since we obviously didn’t have his swing.

Anyway, yesterday morning we went over to Granny’s and had breakfast with her. We stayed to visit for awhile because Noah fell asleep. After he woke up, we drove back to Daddy’s, but no one was there, so we had to go all the way back out to Granny’s because not only were both of our cell phone batteries dead (and thus, we couldn’t call Daddy), but Jake realized he had left his jacket at Granny’s. So we hung out with her for a bit longer and I also managed to find Jake’s inhaler, which he had misplaced over there on Tuesday. After Daddy returned home, we went back over there, packed up, and left. Jake thankfully drove home and we got here shortly after 8

pm. Noah didn’t go to bed until really late last night since he slept quite a bit in the car on the way home, but he woke up at his normal time this morning and took his normal naps, so he went to bed at normal time tonight. I’m SO glad his sleep schedule wasn’t disrupted too much….that was the one big thing I feared about this trip. Which is exactly why I’ve told everyone that next year, we’ll go up to my brother’s for Christmas, since I likely won’t have seen him for two years by then, but after that, everyone is just going to have to come to us for a few years until the kids are old enough to not need to rely on swings or other things to fall asleep, and won’t require us to pack so much, either. I just don’t think it’s fair to expect us to travel with small children, you know?

Anyway, now we’re home and it’s business as usual. We went out and did some shopping today, though we mostly just hung out to unwind a bit. Tomorrow I’ll get Noah’s new toys organized and hopefully I can get Jake to put together his dresser. I also need to go grocery shopping, and I’ll have to try and get at least one load of laundry done.

I am a little disappointed that Jake didn’t get me the sewing machine I want, but it sounds like he just wants to wait for my birthday, to give me time to figure out a good setup since I won’t really have use of the spare room like I had planned. Don’t get me wrong, he was still VERY generous with his gifts, but I REALLY wanted that sewing machine, ya know? Oh, well, my birthday is only a few months away. And in the meantime, I guess I’ll just start saving up my survey money just in case he flakes out then, too.

Anyhow, I’m off to soak in a nice warm bath. I’ll be calling the chiropractor tomorrow. The pain in my pelvic area has gotten much, much worse just in the past couple of days and I just can’t take it anymore. It’s affecting my ability to take care of my child and that is NOT acceptable to me.

I’ll try to take pictures of all of the gifts tomorrow. I don’t have any other pictures to post because I was too busy opening everything to actually take any pictures…can you believe my son has NO interest in actually opening anything? Nope, he just wanted to play with it all after Mommy opened it for him!