Part One, the Blur

Good thing I don't get paid, cuz after five days of no blogging, my butt would be fired. I'm not sure what happened. I blinked. If you are a mom, I'm pretty sure you'll know what I'm talking about. But let's see if I can catch you up...

I cookie swapped like a champ. My roughly 5.5 dozen cookies were gone instantly. I gotta say it felt pretty good to open that first tin and hear, "Oooh, you made pizzelles? I love those!" There were quite a few straggler cookies left on plates. I had crumbs. I wasn't even home before my friend texted me asking for a recipe. Oh yeah, I rock.

We had Christmas part 1 of 3 with the grandparents. My living room looked like Christmas exploded. There was no putting presents under the tree. They would have BURIED poor Doug. It wasn't like the family went super crazy, but a lot of them were just physically large. And I feel like I missed the opening of everything, including my own.

In my family, we dragged out the opening of presents. Everyone got their turn to be the center of attention, to ooh and aaah appropriately so that the giver and the receiver could both rate their gifting experience. (Watch out for the Russian judge... always critical) The youngest always went first, and in my years, I guess it was to keep my head from exploding in anticipation. I was the baby. I never had to wait for anyone. Explains a lot, don't it?

Hubby's family gets everything over with in one giant cluster. One person plays Santa and passes out gifts, and once everyone has a box or bag in front of them, it's all over but the cryin'. Even with only my fam of 4 opening I felt like I had no idea who got what for whom. I checked all my tags, but before I could commit the name to the present under the paper, my attention was drawn to one of my offspring tearing into the new favorite toy of the last 30 seconds.

Sorry, I've had two kids. My brain can only handle so much at once. Christmas last year with the WHOLE family about did me in. That's a whole lotta wrapping paper flying... eek... paper cuts...

So kinda glad the rest of our Christmases should be low-key. Besides our family Wii, Craig and I will only have stockings to open on Christmas Day. And if we're feeling left out, I'll break out the iPod and he can go to the garage and stare at the Other Woman (his boat, if you're just tuning in).

On the 26th, we'll head to PA to visit my family, which will be the one-at-a-time deal with my Nana, aunt and uncle. Aaah... I can hear the almost silence now.

I'm a mom. Silence is golden.

So are Starbucks gift cards, Santa. Hint, hint.