Christmas in Grosse Pointe

This is the first year we've had Christmas without any of my family around. Or even at our own house for that matter. Leading up to Christmas was kind of stressful since we squeezed in a little ski trip for our anniversary a couple nights beforehand. We got back to GP around 7pm Christmas Eve and picked up the kids from the Grange household--which, I'm sure, was glad to be 2 kids short. We quickly dragged our luggage and the kids' luggage back into the house, flipped on the Christmas tree lights, and attempted to have a nice Christmas Eve as a family with moderate success. We sat by the glowing tree and the kids sipped hot cocoa with snowmen mint marshmallows while I read from Luke. Then we sang a few songs and that concluded the spiritual part of the evening. The kids get to open one present this night and we've started a tradition of getting them pjs to wear to bed. This time though I stuffed them into their stockings from last year marked From Chicago Santa and left them on their beds. Apparently I chose well because the boys were ecstatic over their MarioKart and Cars pjs. Keahi was thrilled that Santa had known what he would love--even if it wasn't the spaceship toy he'd requested. A little while later, Iz and I could finally relax a bit...after cleaning the house and unpacking and getting ready for Chrstimas morning, that is.

Thank all that is holy the boys still slept in on Christmas morning. We had them open their stockings. Jarom was overjoyed that he got a new Lightning Mcqueen to replace the one he lost the week before in Costco. And both kids loved their light sabers and robotic arms and helmets. Then they opened the traditional family game--Cranium Congo--and played while I made brunch. After overhearing Jarom say (as part of the game) that his favorite food was mouse-ear pancakes I made sure I made the proper shapes on the griddle.

After brunch more wrapper ripping ensued--except for the last minute ones I didn't bother to wrap--and we enjoyed a (mostly) relaxing day of toy heaven. My big present was the ski jacket and I'd already been using the lotion mom sent so not a lot of present opening for me. I did save a surprise for Iz--a present that came in the mail from an unknown person. I'd thought it was Tammy at first and then Kervin but now I know it was from Arron. Iz's eyes lit up when he slid out the dvd copy of The Last Dragon. Seriously, you can't ask for a better gift than that. An endless supply of joy. And don't forget the power of the Glow. Our other favorite thing was the box o treats from Kerv and Mary. Lup Cheong!! And the prettiest chopsticks and placemats.

The next morning we got up early and headed out to Toys R Us (first time shopping there ever) so the boys could spend their Christmas money from Ojiisan. Jarom got 4 more Cars to go on the race track we'd gotten him. And Keahi bought Super Monkey Ball. It was actually get one video game get 2nd one half off so we also got one--Wii Fit Plus. Lost of fun for everyone. Then we raced home and started prepping for Christmas dinner with the Roehls. When they got here we chatted, prepped, made rice crispy popsicles and cookies, and played video games. I didn't really get much of a look at the Lego Star Wars game they brought over but I know by the end of the night it was the dads that weren't letting go of it. Dinner was great: Lemon herb turkey with garlic smashed potatoes (I went crazy with the garlic this time instead of catering to the kids) roasted carrots and grilled asparagus. Plus that favorite salad of mine with the gorgonzola, candied pecans, green apples, dried cherries and bacon. Yum. But, alas, no papaya seed dressing. Then for the nontraditional we had rice, kalbi, kalua pig and cabbage and chocolate haupia pie. Plus, Nate got to try a couple different sushis for lunch. Soooo ono. With all the different flavors it was hard to stop. But stop we did in time to open presents before the Roehls had to drive home. All the way to Toledo. I cant' believe we live one and a half hours away and this is our first visit together. We'll have to rectify that. Oooh, can't wait to see the Toledo Zoo. And we also need to bring Paul's and Malia's gifts with us since they accidentally left them behind. Except for the glow-in-the-dark foam which they really loved. Our boys loved their Cars puzzle, dino models and we especially loved our photobook of all the cousins. Great idea, Lani!

So that was basically our Christmas in Grosse Pointe. Simple. But fun. And full of yummy leftovers. The rest of our vacation was pretty relaxed. We went ice skating a few times at our park. Keahi just had his first lesson yesterday and he's doing great. We've attempted to make snowmen but our neighbor told us it was still too fluffy. Good to know it's the snow and not our own ineptitude leading to underwhelming blobs. Last week Sunday, Keahi was very excited about going back to school. He jumped up and down exclaiming, "Yay, yay, yay. Today is the last day of Christmas vacation." It was a nice break, but I agree that it's good to be back to normal.....except for waking up early.

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