The Late, Great Christmas Post

So, it's been a busy couple of weeks. We have quite literally done more in the month of December than pretty much all year long. And since my dear husband insisted on quitting his job, thus forcing me into the work force, all these happenings have been scheduled around around my rotating schedule.

It all started with the Rock Crawl for Kids, a trip to Yukon, and then the boys and I took a detour to visit my sister and their favorite 1 year old cousin.

After taking a brief respite at home (and a few more hours on the time clock at work), we ventured down to San Antonio for some much needed Mimi and Peepaw time (i.e. my parents). We left on Sunday, December 20 which means that we got to celebrate my birthday down south. My mom surprised me with a Susan Perry original cake and we all stuffed our faces at Alamo Cafe. Tucker and Peepaw found a new use for tortilla holders and Tyson made cookies with Mimi. Stuart fixed a couple of things around my parent's house and we generally lounged and ate Christmas treats.

Unfortunately the work whistle was blowing and we had to head back home.

Have I mentioned that I had to work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the day after Christmas AND the day after that?

We woke up on Christmas Eve morning to the beginnings of snow and watched as our house became a cocoon of warmth. Stuart shoveled snow for an hour and a half in order to get our van out and drive me to work.

Santa did indeed come to the Doss house and left presents for two good little boys in the closet. (Side note-we didn't put up a tree this year. I know, I know. Shame on us. For the first 5 years of our marriage we had a fake tree. Two years ago we donated our tree to Stuart's flight. Last year we got a real tree. I loved the real tree for many reasons: 1) it smelled FANTASTIC, 2) we didn't have to store it, and 3) it looks so much more REAL than a fake tree. We really had all the intentions of getting another real tree this year but one day led to another and then next thing we knew we were going out of town and then it was Dec 23 and then the snow pretty much shut down our city and then it was Christmas Eve and I worked and somehow Stuart had the grand idea of hiding the presents in the closet. It worked brilliantly and the kids still had small trees in their rooms so you can't completely call me lacking in the tree department.)

After much ripping and shredding of paper, the boys were on present/toy overload so I left Stuart in charge of the chaos and headed to bed



Before we knew it, December 28th was upon us and thus marked the 7th year of wedding bliss for this little couple. We had grand plans for getting a babysitter and hitting the town in style and alone, but loo, that never materialized either. (Have I mentioned that we have NEVER had a babysitter? At least not one that we have paid to come to our house and watch our children while we act like semi-normal, adult, married people. We have left our children a handful of times with married friends so that we can oh, go to the ER with gall stones or go the ER with a non-moving back or go to the ER with more gallstones [all me by-the-way]) So we dragged our old selves to Chili's (a.k.a the Eggplant Store) plus kids and celebrated with several of Wichita Falls' finest and the "2 for $20" deal. Yes, we're frugal and I ain't afraid to admit it.

Somehow we made it thru my working 4 days in a row PLUS Christmas without anyone loosing a limb, so I call that a win.

But we didn't all remain unscathed.

The EXACT SAME stomach bug that hit our family last year at THE EXACT SAME TIME decided to grace our house once again with it's presence. Stupid stomach bug. It began on the 30th with Tucker, jumped to Tyson on the 31st and then hit me square in the face (while at work I might add) on the 1st. What a way to ring in the new year.

So there you have it. My late, great Christmas post. Laden with links and scattered with some pictures. (oh and did I also mention that my adoring husband ERASED all the pictures on my computer from April 2009-present?????? Yeah, it's a VERY sore subject. All I can say is thank you heavens for Shutterfly and my amazing uploading at the end of every month skills. Too bad this happened at the end of December BEFORE I had uploaded December pictures. Oh and also thanks to Facebook and the fact that I actually uploaded some of my December pictures there too. Unfortunately for Stuart I DID NOT however upload any of the videos that I had taken from April 2009-present, so they are tragically gone forever. And to answer your question, yes, he is going to hear about this F-O-R-E-V-E-R.)

AHEM.

Happy 2010!