Christmas Eve

I can't believe that it's already Christmas! This year has come and gone so quickly, hasn't it?

I've got so many things to try and get done in the next couple of days, and so many people to try and see.

I was really worried that this holiday would be a total fiasco with having to try and divide our time between my family and Wil's, but things seem to be working themselves out well. Apparently, Wil's family, and most hispanic families, celebrate more on Christmas Eve than they do on Christmas. That works perfectly because my family doesn't really do much on Christmas eve. So we're having dinner with them tonight. And in the morning it'll be all about Santa at my parents with the kids getting more gifts than any children could possibly need.

Jonas, of course, still doesn't get the whole christmas thing, but he thinks the tree is pretty, and is starting to recognize different carols. It's cute to watch him dance with the singing snowman at Grannys. And I think that once he watches Steven open a few gifts, he'll be digging that as well. Right now they're just pretty nuissances under the tree that he isn't allowed to touch.

This will be the last year that Steven believes in Santa. He's already questioning his validity. But we have a town not far from here called "Christmas" and every year a little old lady that lives there writes a special note to the kids, printed on cute Christmas-y paper, and they're sent out with a postmark from "santa's workshop: Christmas Florida." All you have to do is fax them the child's name and address. She even pays the postage. I had one sent to him, and it really sealed the deal this year. He still believes! He still carries that letter around and reads it to anyone who listens. How many kids actually get a letter from santa, afterall?!

So tonight we'll stuff ourselves on pasteles and pernil and in the mrning we'll over-indulge in gift giving. Then it's back to work on Monday for me. Wil is off and will stay home with Jonas while I work. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get out of there early because I haven't even begun packing our suitcases and we leave Tuesday morning for Memphis.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of our family soon. It's far too long between visits, honestly. But at the same time, I feel like we just don't have enough time to see all the people we want to see. Between Mom's family, Dad's, and my step-mom's. There's a LOT of folks to visit. Plus my dad wants us to take a trip about three hours north to see the property they just bought and visit extended family out there. It's a lot to pack into four days. Especially while toting around a toddler who's slow to warm and needs some sort of normalcy in his schedule.

Hopefully having Aaron and Steven around will help keep him happy. Other kids are a good thing, I think.

But I'm stressed about the fact that I won't be able to spend as much time as I'd like with any one family member. I mean, how do you pack everything into four days without hurting some feelings? It's just too much. I wish there was more time. It's not going to feel like a vacation at all.

But I'm not going to sit here and whine. Hell, I still have all of Jonas' presents to wrap, and I just realized that I forgot to pick up the bottle of wine that goes in the wine bottle cover I finished knitting for Heidi and Tom. Ugh. So many loose ends.

But I got the cover done, which I was uncertain I'd be able to do, and actually finished with enough time to knit up a little mouse for my sister's cat. It's so cute! I stuffed it with catnip, and since they knit up really fast (a couple of hours, even with interruptions and with my lack of experience) that I think I'll try and make a couple more for some of my friends kitties. Besides, the only thing else that I have to knit that's really pressing are a couple of baby gifts, but I don't have the yarn to do them yet, nor the budget just now. Besides, I've got lots of time to get those done, and these little mice are great for using up some of the scrap yarn I have laying around right now.