christmas day came, it really came


i think sloan woke me up at approximately 7:44 to go upstairs and do stockings.  i do believe i had been skimming in and out of consciousness for a while by that point.  i stumbled up, braless (regretted that later when i caught a glimpse of my reflection) and plunked myself down on the green couch.  we opened stockings oldest to youngest.  huxley got these super cute fluffy puppy slippers that he was wearing before i got upstairs.  all the boys got pez dispensers and two pez packets.  huxley inhaled his two packs almost instantly, and was already eyeing sloan and adriel's packs by the time they were pulling them out of their socks.  it's important to note that adriel and sloan both got cool ginch.  positive reinforcement of daily ginch wearing and changing is key.  they both got rings too.  rings for their man paws.  they all got colourful squishy stress balls.  sarah got fancy pantsy chocolates and leggings and other things.  kyle did her right.  but what was stocking and what was present i don't know anymore.  let's talk about me.  hi i'm laura and my christmas name is joyus.  i'm 44 and i've recently taken on the identity of a ball of curls.  my stocking was tricky.  i got slipper booties. soft blush pink with veins of golden threads all soft and plushy with pom poms and white fluffy sofness inside and that's what they used as my stocking.  there was a small pink journal sticking out the top.  it said "she sparkles wherever she goes".  i'm using it as my new scripture study journal.  i also got a cool pink n poip water bottle, and the exceedingly cute soft leather floral earrings that tanis makes, a soft white braided leather cuff that almost didn't fit but DOES.  it DOES.  and i likes it.  i lurves it. also some lovely lindor balls, and 3 purdy chocolate bars--2 chewies and 1 peanut butter one.  kyle is super jazzed about chewies.  ask him about it.  you'll see.  frankly there's truth in his jazziness regarding chewies and i'm not afraid to admit it.  when kyle purchases chewies he does jazz hands.  starting now.

we watched a church video about the real gift of christmas.  i liked it.  brought a tear to my eye.

the christmas tree was in the kitchen by the front window.  so kyle loaded up on presents and went in and out reading out the labels.  labeling a present and having your label read on christmas morning and receiving a well labeled christmas present is a joyful christmas morning tradition.  i got lots of good ones this year.  here are 3 that survived the carnage of paper, bows, n tags:

1.) to: lurfa. here's your bow. merry christmas. from: dullard aka christmas woodchuck.  kyle was a little wrapping challenged.  this particular present was wrapped up all lumpy bumpy with one of my favourite wrapping papers (be glad you were not up here to see some of kyle's atrocities said sarah one of the wrapping days of christmas when i joined her and kyle at the table) and a red bow on top.  i remember eyeing him as he wrapped that one.  i think i've grown in wrapping tolerance over the years.  let people wrap how they want.  i wrap how i want.  but my papers!  my ribbons! (said like the wise man "but my nuts! my dates!"  they are tender tennesee christmases to me (bethany is also tender tennesee christmas of yesteryear) but what i'm saying i can let things slide and enjoy wrapping personalities.  can i talk about wrapping for hours?  maybe.  what is she even talking about??? get with it.  wrapping matters.  anywho, kyle gave me a cool purse that he sneakily snuck shopped behind my very back (i think?) i', currently eyeing it up to be my long awaited camera purse.  if it works, swell.  if not it will be my regular purse and there's no shame in that.

 2.) laura-may this be a veritable bonanza of bountiful beauts, and may that be your life always, sarah.  a veritable bonanza of bountiful beauts was on my christmas list and sarah satisfied this request fully with 2 new lipsense colours, the razzmataz that i had coveted long, and roseberry aaaaand the matte gloss that i love to use to make the colour magically velvetee (fatima is velvetee).  there was also a rose gold eye sparkly that she wasn't planning on giving me, but after putting it on me one day felt strongly that it was a where-have-you-been-all--my-life-meant-to-be-mine kind of ditty. indeed.

3.) to my big sis who's awesome and bright & cheery and fun and lights up my life in a way no one else does.  what's this? what's this?  (heart) sarah ok kyle too.  we think this was some cute cloth covered floral studs and a green oval cactus necklace.

sloan gave me a new wallet. a mustard number with a swing strap and cute inside fabric.  his may have said "a pickled pete of your very own" which was another request on my list.  adriel gave me mermaid knee high socks that sarah picked up in a wonderous place in texas.  a gas station store that has so many cool things.  so texas.  i also got a  "farquad in all his glory"--another request from my legendary list.  hux gave me farquad and his interpretation was these beautiful glass circle iridescent earrings that sarah picked up in an art gallery store--that time she just jumped out of the car in traffic and sauntered to the side of the road. i was really spoiled with a lot of love and a lot of laughs and a lot of nice things.  sloan also got me a poster of a fluffy dog named cute boo.  he got it from his school trading market.  and he wrapped up these little pictures he coloured for me and drawings of me and archie.  so cute and so sweet.

sloan loved his shoes.  he put them on right away.  and wore them in the house all day.  huxley loved his flashlight and his scooter.  adriel was frankly amazed by his plethora of magic cards.  and said his new floral shirt was 'sexy'.  i heard him and sloan talking about how there were thousands of dollars of magic cards there.  and he spent a lot of time organizing them.  kyle liked his cool shoes and sarah liked all her big textured and substantial earrings i got her (but kyle got her some AHMAZING rock your world feather hoops) and she let out a pleasing squeal when she saw the anastasia glow highlighter set and i wrapped one gift that said "somethings are rad and some things are duddlywops". on the day we shopped at flavour--the date night, i had circled back, telling kyle i was going to get sarah something from flavour and telling sarah that i was getting something for kyle, and hurridely bought her the pretty crushed velvet dress that she had liked that was only 24, on sale.  so i bought a jumpsuit too.  i chose the chambray wide legged one because it was cheaper than the musturdy stripe.  "do you want a bag?" asked the woman at the till.  do you think i could fit those both in my purse?" i queried, "my sister is with me and i don't want her to see." the ladies immediately began rolling the clothing into tight burritos which i magically stuffed into my little purse.  it was bulging so badly, that i had to put my mittens on top to hide it all. and put my purse underneath my sweater.  then lindsay kept bringing attention to my purse throughout the night.  "stay a while" she would say, patting my shoulder, and telling me to take off my purse at the resto.  anyways i gave her those and a pair of red plaid snuggies from american eagle.  i feared the snuggies were a dudley wop.  in the end she returned the chambray jumpsuit because it fit weird and got the striped mustard which was now on sale so i got a dollar back!  it all woiks out!

when we were almost done with the gifts, that's when adam showed up with his butt load of gifts from ann and also some from him of course.  ann didn't come because of my viral nature.  adam needed to make several trips and we were like woah.  i put the french toast in the oven and got the sausages ready and made the syrup off  and on throughout that process.  the french toast took extra long and at one point i et some of it raw (couldn't taste it) and then i gave up and et jonas selkirk instead.

kyle and adam and the boys were setting up their new nintendo switch and all it's sundries for quite some time. i think kyle was setting up a lot of things. sarah and i did reviews of her stuff then mine.  i think i was going to nap but i never really did.  sarah did.  i talked to katie and we talked through all the christmas morning things on both our respective christmas fronts.

there are blanks in my memory.  this is probably when i was sitting drooling in a zoned out vibe.


all i know is that at some point i started putting together my wonder salad and it was at around the same time that adam was making is good but  small bowl of mashed potatoes.  sloan helped me grate the cauliflower.  my salad had some fresh grated cauliflower and some roasted cauliflower.  it also had pistachios, and pom seeds and lemon juice and cilantro and lime and parsley.  it's time i said it.  sarah and kyle have NO medium bowls!  they have super large or smallish.  nothing in between.  biggiesmall okay.  sarah made a kickin gravy and some buns of perfection.  kyle did the toikey and sweet potatoes like he'd been perfecting it all his life.  and oh--yeah just the amazing stuffing.  just that.  it was an awesome meal and i know that because i had left overs a different day when i could actually taste it.  we congratulated ourselves a lot.

i may have said something to sloan about going for a walk to the beach and lighting a fire and he may have taken it very literally and started planning for it and pushing for it the very moment the words left my lips.  i'm more of an ideas girl and sloan is more of an action guy....so anyways at some point we had to postpone that plan.

some time after dinner i watched adriel and sloan play fortnight.  my favourite part was making them have simultaneous dance offs with each other.  sloan got a secret box.  well how to open it was secret and he got a harry potter wand and he got a squishy merleman.  and he carried these items wherever he went for the next week at least.  wherever sloan was those items were not far behind.  i named merleman.

we had the best cheesecake known to man.  i can't talk about it.  it's just the best. know that.  we had it with a mixed berry compote.  the end.

sarah read the les schwab story and the pickled paul story to her kids--those are our two christmas stories.  adriel liked them and sloan was disgusted. the boys went to bed and we played camel cup.  sarah won one game and i won one game.  it's the first time i've won camel cup.  congratulate me.  then sarah and kyle wanted to go to bed...well actually it was sarah, but i forced a 'lightning round' on us.  it was pretty fast.  there were lightning round rules...well one.  and you'd have to know camel cup to understand it.  but it did end quite quickly. i don't remember who won.  that must mean it wasn't me.  i think it was sarah.

we slept.

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