Catching Up on Christmas

I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do for you. I had intended to blog more while on my break, and have found myself being even less productive, if that is possible.

Christmas was lovely, and didn't seem nearly as hectic as it has in year's past. We had dinner at Twin Sister's place on Christmas Eve and it was awesome. She was a little nervous about having her first big holiday family meal, but she pulled it off beautifully!!! The Boy's older siblings were both with their in-laws, so it was just his parents, Twin Sister and her wife and their daughter, and me, The Boy and Munchkin. And there was present-swapping:-)

The pretend family came over to our place on Christmas morning for breakfast and more present-swapping. Really, that can be classified as "Munchkin's Haul" since 90% of the presents are for her. And, as usual, she totally cleaned up...for someone who wears a uniform to school, she has enough clothes for about a dozen people...

I didn't ask for much, and Munchkin took care of the little things I wanted...waterproof mittens:-), a body pillow and ear muffs were pretty much it...SHR and Big Sis each bought me some cute maternity clothes. Along with Papa Bear, they gave us (really the babies) an extraordinarily generous and thoughtful gift that was quite unexpected.

The Boy gave me a Kindle, which was the only present I asked him for. And...um...completely awesome. It does as good a job of replicating the feel of having a book in your hand as possible, and is super easy to use and has tons of neat features. Also, the e-ink is really cool...not at all like staring at a computer screen.

We had Christmas Day with the extended pretend family, which I always love, if only because it gives me a chance to go and hang out at Papa Bear's old house for an afternoon. (That was where they lived until around the time we graduated from college, and where I lived for the summer I spent out here. When he moved into the city, he sold the house to his nephew, SHR's cousin...hence the Christmas Day invite).

It is a great big old classic New England house, and I just love it! It is also remarkably close to the city for being in what is really a pretty quiet area (for the locals, it is in Brookline). It is probably less than three miles from where I live, yet it sits on a pretty quiet two acres or so. As much as I generally disdain suburbs, I could totally live there...well, except for one tiny little fiscal complication;-)

Anyway, I am off-track... The day after Christmas was my annual child-swap, so we got Munchkin packed up and shipped out early in the morning, and then headed to the airport in the afternoon to pick up Tinkerbelle. She is as cute as ever, and we have had a great visit! It is nice to not have any work or school or anything to worry about, and to just be able to bum around with her. We have done some shopping, and drove over so I could show her my school, and gone to the movies...and yesterday we tried to go ice skating in the snow, but there was a lot more rain than snow, which kinda ruins the mood:-).

She is coming to a New Year's party with with us on Thursday, but I don't know how long we will stay. She is not quite as outgoing as Munchkin, so I have a feeling that she may get overwhelmed by the noise and excitement and all of the new people. Also, if there are too many drunkards, I may pull the plug early;-). I hope she makes it until midnight, but I am prepared to bail early if needed...I will just have to make out with The Boy early:-D

I guess that about does it for now...I have a lunch date:-)