Christmas 2022

It's Christmas!  Already!  We sort of lose a week or two in December because of the Christmas Production, getting so caught up in all that, but we start earlier in November to compensate.  Still, it sort of feels more than ever that things have snuck up on us.  It doesn't seem real that we're finally here at the end of the holiday season.  Mom and I got up early, and got some wood on the fire, and got all the birdseed out there too for a generous Christmas blessing for our cold little friends.  In fact, we were adding warmer water to the bird bath and the water dishes out there, although they would freeze over again eventually - the weather is below freezing again.  

Maddie slept in again, as is her custom on Christmas morning.  There's none of that "up at 4:30 am" stuff here, or even 7am for that matter.  She woke up as she does each Christmas morning, peeked over the bridge, and saw the presents all underneath the tree.  It would be time to open them all soon enough, although first there had to be tea and drinks.  Stockings were filled last night, and all four of us got to our stockings right away, getting out candy, and even some new coffee flavors that you'll see below.  We stayed in our pajamas because that's what you do on Christmas morning, wearing Christmas socks, slippers, pajamas and Santa hats too.  One at a time we were unwrapping all the different presents under the tree - Maddie played Santa, handing out the presents to everyone in three big stacks.

Mom got a CD that we went on to listen to - in the older days, there would be CDs and DVDs or even Blu-Rays, but this year, there was one jewel case CD beneath the tree, and one Blu-Ray of the latest Jurassic Park movie.  The music was a praise and worship set that Mom has enjoyed listening to on the radio.  Of course, for the morning we had nothing but Christmas music playing, all kinds of varieties of music to keep teh festive atmosphere going.  Nana had some presents to open with new sneakers and lots of British import candies to bring out a smile.  Mom got several things for the birds, some puzzles for later, a few books and even a Wordle boardgames.  There were items from Bath & Bodyworks, and even a smaller sized shofar that we immediately had to try out.  I got some Nightmare Before Christmas themed coffee, some vinyl records, and another collection of Star Wars themed soap, which is amazing, by the way.  We got a few board games, and oh, lots of books.  It was a jólabókafló - a book flood.  Maddie got a few she was wanting, and so did Mom.  As for myself, I got the remaining Terry Pratchett Discworld novels, which means I now have the entire collection of novels.  There are still a few other booklets to pick up from this point on, but I'll certainly be busy with books the rest of the year!  Maddie got a few things too, opening up a few more Pop figures, all with a Ghostbusters theme - except for the Mobius one that she wanted last summer.  She saw that around the time of Forward, and Santa must have been listening.  He was also listening last summer when she saw that Super Mario LIFE boardgame too.  She got a lot of things for Christmas, and a lot of candy, and a make-up and Star Wars items too.  We have new ornaments for the Star Wars tree, and origami, and all kinds of things.  But the biggest surprise came at the end of the morning.  Maddie forgot a few presents under the tree.  There was one for Mom, and then there was this other one that she initially thought was for me, maybe a vinyl record, but then she realized it was for her.  She opened it up once she saw it was for her, and she was quite happy to see it was a Taylor Swift calendar for her wall.  She always gets a new calendar for Christmas.  She started looking through the months, looking at the different pictures, going from January to February to March to April... and then she saw there was something written on April 30th.  She read it slowly, trying to figure what it said - something about the Eras Concert at 6:30 pm.... was that a joke?  Wait, there were specific seats written down there.  She looked up at Mom and I, still sorting it out in her mind, but it was gradually sinking in... did she just get Taylor Swift tickets for Christmas?  Yep, you did Maddie!  In a few moments she had some tears in her eyes, as she was so grateful for this gift - it was a good one.  It was a really great Christmas for her, of course.  

That was the big one, the last of the Christmas presents here.  But soon we were packing up to go over to my parents' house.  We got dressed, went online to do our greetings with a lot of other friends and family, made a few calls, and then did the last-minute wrapping needed to get out the door.

We met up at Ye-Ye and Nana's house, and had a big Christmas feast over there, with Honeybaked Ham and all kinds of other Christmas items, including all the desserts too.  It was such a big meal!  We sat in the living room afterwards, opening presents from one another as we always do, and after all that, it was time for the yearly White Elephant game, where we submit joke gifts, opening them and stealing them from one another.  Maddie wound up with a shark Snuggie, which I believe you can see below with all the other pictures too.

We left there eventually, and when I got home, we realized that Aunt Shain had given us a tremendous gift, one so big that we are having a hard time accepting it.  She sold her home in Gwinnett, and she wanted to help us get a new oven.  It's such a big gift, so we were going back and forth on the phone over that, and yes, we'll have to find a way to repay her for such generosity.  

The rest of Christmas Day was quiet.  We sat and watched a movie, "The Last Holiday," which Mom and I really liked.  Maddie was enjoying some of her new toys, and once Nana went to bed, we sat and watched a few episodes of "The Bad Batch," which has a second season starting in about a week or so.  We'll be having a marathon with that throughout the rest of 2022.  

But soon it was time for bed.  We were very exhausted from such a full day, but we made sure we continued our reading, and we said our prayers too.  It was a very nice Christmas Day.  Here are a few photos from today, pictures to look back on as we remember Christmas 2022.