Countdown continues

5 days til Christmas (well actually I counted wrong, never claimed math was my strong suit-so counting Saturday and Sunday as one day here) and mother nature gave to me a blizzard! We braved the conditions with Jimmy’s stellar driving and made it to the Flyers game only to watch them lose, again. It was a fun afternoon out with Jim, Laurie, Kevin and Joanne. Thanks to Krissy and T for babysitting!! As I was snuggling with the boys and reading books later, Alek told me he couldn’t wait to make snow angels tomorrow and then proceeded to tell me that I was a beautiful angel, Maks followed up with, “You’re my best mama”. Truly doesn’t get much better than that! Had a blast sledding, they loved going down the hill together with mama, we would fall off the sled cracking up. Took Alek for a quick visit to Nana’s, with Pop, Noni, and the McCann clan. Sorry we couldn’t stay long as Alek and cousin Aldo were having a blast. Back home, boys excited for Miss Jessie to babysit and then we were off to fabulous dinner at Dilworthtown celebrating Granny’s 70th (we will be away for the actual day). Crazy, fun filled weekend and again, I got absolutely nothing done for Christmas. I need an elf to come wrap my presents for me.

4 days til Christmas and back to work, trying to tie up loose shopping ends as well. Counting down days to Santa and beach. Angels are at day care and headed to nursing home to perform for the residents and have a Christmas party with them. I love that the school has a relationship with the nursing home, it is great for the kids and the residents. Get a call that Alek is having a rough time listening now that they are back at school and he was not being very nice to his teacher, so we need to pick him up. Hmmm, wonder if Santa was watching this? The joys of the season and all its busyness and overstimulation. Once I got to school, he was in better shape and back in his group, but I still took him home to drive the point home. He was devastated, my herat broke watching him cry, I know it can be so hard this time of year to keep yourself in check. Hopefully lesson was learned though. Guilt ridden he headed into home, prepared to have a better day tomorrow.

3 days til Christmas and all was quiet, thankfully. We organized for our trip, did some wrapping. Maks is so set on the Bahamas, he keeps telling everyone, I go to the Bahamas. He seems to be skipping right over Christmas. Alek of course is correcting him, reminding him of the excitement for Christmas. He is definitely the big brother.

2 days til Christmas, Alek is pumped for his kindergarten party, but bummed mommy wont be there this time. They only allow so many parents for each party, so even though I helped organize, I had to give other parents a chance to be there. He had a blast. Maks wanted a party too. Alek told his teacher that, so she sent home extra goodies for Maks. Alek is a sweetie when he wants to be. I spent most of the night wrapping after the kids went to sleep. Wish I could hire an elf. I am exhausted and battling a sinus thing, hope it goes away, I don't have time to be sick!

1 day til Christmas and it is crunch time. Boys are pumped, mommy’s frazzled and daddy’s ambivalent and not worried at all. Got my hair done and a pedicure for the trip, did my food shopping and rushed home to try and relax before the official festivities begin. JoJo’s for Christmas eve dinner. Fun as always! Maks was always hungry especially for the desserts. Food was great. Alek managed to rip another pair of pants, he has put a hole in a knee in 4 pants this week! The kids were extra excited this year between Christmas and upcoming trip, they were bouncing off the walls, who could blame them? After a great time it was home to get ready. We got our cookies (thanks Jo, as mommy forgot to get some or prepare the brake and bakes) and milk and letter out for Santa, brushed our teeth, said our prayers and off to bed. I ran to catch 11 pm church, which was a beautiful, peaceful candlelight service that I enjoyed very much. It was good for me to slow down, have that time and remember the real meaning of Christmas. Of course as soon as it was over, I had to rush home to finish the stockings. I managed to get in bed by 1 am. It was cold, and I fell asleep dreaming of warm sandy beaches.

Christmas!!! It’s here!! Mom and I got on the same page and made sure they arrived by 8:15am, they have been known to pull in our driveway and we are all still asleep. Maks was up and ready, I had to wake Alek up—like Grammom says, what kid has to be woken up on Christmas? They opened their stockings in our room. It was time to head downstairs. The paparazzi was waiting with cameras and video! The boys ran excitedly to their piles. Alek blew through his as if it was a race, paper flying everywhere! Maks was methodical, carefully unwrapping each present, inspecting each one and wanting to play with each one. Of course Alek thought Maks had more since he was still opening, but we put that issue to rest quickly. We had a wonderful breakfast from Chef Kevin. Meem loved her omelet, she looks forward to this each year. Her own special time with the boys. It was a great morning! Grammom, Poppy and Meem packed up and headed home. Pop and Noni then arrived for their visit, more presents, more excitement. Loved that Noni was resourceful again this year and had their presents in great big beach/overnight bags. They are perfect for our trips to South Bowers in the summer. We enjoyed our visit and I started getting everyone ready to head to dinner with the Harkins clan. Granny and JoJo stopped by with their presents, more excitement for the kids—it was non stop on Christmas day! Granny bought their bags for our trip, they were a big hit, perfect size. They loved the toys from JoJo. We all got ourselves together and headed to Jim and LaLa’s for dinner. It was an amazing dinner as usual and a good time. It was definitely hard this year without PopPop, he was in all our minds and our hearts. The boys enjoyed more presents and big hit was their new ZhuZhu pets, hopefully these will stop the pestering for a new pet for a while. They are cute, but they do need cages, those buggers crawl all over the place!! It was another wonderful Christmas and we are thankful to have such an amazing family so close by. Off to home we went, last minute packing as the alarm would be waking us up early for our adventure to Bimini. Sunshine and warmth, here we come!

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