Dec 25 2005
Do they know its Christmas?
Fuller’s second Christmas in almost over and his momma is tired.
Christmas with Damon’s side of the family means go here, go there, eat, watch the wather channel, eat, eat. (Of course, my side of the family does their share of the eat, eat, eat part.)
Yesterday, Damon, Fuller, & I spent a lot of time in Montgomery trying to tie up loose ends in the home-made gift area. We also forgot our gifts for the gift exchange in Deatsville, so I was tasked with finding gifts to take for Dirty Santa. While the time in Montgomery was a tad stressful, it was mainly stressful from the “hurry up and wait” part of making the gift (two hours to upload 100 pictures to Sam’s Club).
Then our Christmas Eve activity was traveling to Deatsville to be with Linda’s side of the family. Fuller was admired by all, as is the norm. We ate and ate and then played Dirty Santa (aka White Elephant, Yankee Gift Swap, or Chinese Auction).
It sure is interesting playing that type of gift exchange game with family members. We got into it by chanting the name of the person whose turn it was. The chanting servered as a means to get the person to either dance or get frustrated and just choose a gift already. Several items were considered “hot” and were passed around until they were dead by the third exchange. There was a step ladder that folded in half and sideways, a cordless drill, and steam cleaner.
After we got back to the lake house the grown ups spent the evening getting ready for Christmas morning. First I had to wrap all the gifts that I had shipped there. Then, we arranged the presents under the tree, which was beautifully displayed in the sunroom. The trick here was arranging the gifts so that each child knew where his/ hers were located and at the same time were amazed with wonder at all the gifts that were left for them.
The wonder was sort of downplayed Christmas morning when the power went out about 20 minutes before we were allowed to enter the sunroom. No sparkly tree to light our way, but the grey Alabama skys provided enough light to allow us our opportunity to gain new stuff.
Fuller was an example of a kid who just didn’t know what was going on. Sure he noticed the new toys and was distracted by the time spent with the Legos, but he just wanted to know why we hadn’t fed him his breakfast and catered to his every need.
Damon’s gift to his parents was a coloring book he made that was all about the lake house. It was a very thoughtful gift that was a big hit. It kind of made Linda cry.
Our Christmas lunch/ dinner was held at Eloise’s house. She is Damon’s grandmother, Albert’s mother, Fuller’s great-grandma. There were about 50 people crammed into her house waiting to eat the good stuff. Turkey, ham, roast, and pork, stuffings, casseroles, rolls… it was a feast for the senses. Fuller enjoyed some turkey which sent him on a tryptophan journey into being very, very tired.
The gift exchange at Eloise’s was a harried as ever, but we (Damon, Fuller, and myself) escaped to the back bedroom since Fuller wasn’t taking the crowd and noise very well. He was showing that he had gift opening experience and was able to successfully open several of his gifts from various relatives.
And now, we are back at the lake, relaxing and watching as Vivian & Nick explore their various gifts. Nick loves Buzz Lightyear and Vivian is enjoying her doddledog. And Bobby is wondering where it will all fit in their car.
We go back to Chattanooga some time tomorrow.
Great pics.