Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everybody!

This holiday season seems to have been rough on everybody. Thanksgiving was late in November, and if I figured correctly, we lost a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas because of it. It's just felt rushed and harried.

And the latest frustration was that my Christmas cards got lost in the mail between the printers and me. They were supposed to arrive by Dec. 13, so I got in touch with the company. By the time they got my message and checked into it, it was Dec. 18. Then on Dec. 20, I got an email saying that my order had been lost, so they had issued a full refund.

So five days before Christmas, I found out that I wouldn't be sending out Christmas cards. Not in time for Christmas, anyway. But hey, maybe I'll send out some Happy New Year's cards instead.

Jeff and I went overboard for Biscuit again this year. We say every year that we're going to use a little more control when it comes to presents for him. Then we see all these cool things we want to get for him.

I woke Biscuit up at about 8:30 this morning. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and yelled to him.

"Are you ready to come downstairs to see what Santa brought?" I said.

"Mom, um, is it presents?" Biscuit asked.

I think Biscuit was worried about whether he had been good enough to get presents vs. a lump of coal. He asked several questions about it yesterday. I assured him that I thought he had been good enough, but he was still worried.

"Yes, it's presents," I said to him.

"What did I get, Mom?" he asked.

"Why don't you come down to see," I said.

Then he scooted down the stairs and headed into the living room.

All he asked for was a Wolverine action figure and new teddy bear. He wanted a brown bear that would sit down like Bobo, so when he's at day care, Puppy won't get lonely. The only problem with this request was that he told Santa, but didn't tell Jeff and me!

Then this past weekend at Mama's, he told everybody that he had asked Santa for a Wolverine toy and a new teddy bear. So I sent Jeff on an errand Monday!

Biscuit came down and looked around at his presents, and said, "Mom, I don't think Santa brought my teddy bear."

"What's in that bag over there?" I asked Biscuit.

"I don't know," Biscuit said. "Let's go look."

And guess what it was?

In keeping with his usual naming convention,
Biscuit dubbed this guy Teddy.

One other thing Biscuit loved was the spring he got in his stocking. After a recent birthday party, the kids were given little gift bags full of party favors. The boy standing beside Biscuit got a spring in his bag, but Biscuit didn't. When he told me about it, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what kind of spring the kid got. Then it dawned on me that he was talking about a Slinky. So Biscuit got one in his stocking.

Biscuit's big gift was a bike. Notice I haven't talked about him being excited about it. It's funny because I told Jeff that once we get the bike outside on a nice day, it will definitely bring out some excitement in Biscuit. But sitting still in the living room, there wasn't much he could do with it.

Despite the rush of this season, we've taken a few minutes here and there to remember what the season is about and to appreciate our loved ones.