Christmas Eve Day started out with such promise. After a night of rotten sleep during Sunshine's 13th birthday sleepover blow out and subsequent puke fest, I decided to sleep in on Christmas Eve. By 9 am, I was up, refreshed and ready to tackle the craziness involved in preparing for Christmas Eve. As soon as I had my first blast of caffeine, I started my cooking for the holiday dinners. Of course, my cooking is NEVER too involved because everyone knows I am no Martha Stewart.
For Christmas Eve, we were heading to my hometown of Rochester, IL to spend time with my 5 fabulous sisters and their families. Our family tradition of pizza and ping pong on Christmas Eve goes back to my childhood to a time before I can even remember doing anything else. I decided to make two dips and take chips & dip. I found a tangy tomato dip in my Fitness Magazine and decided to make Lime 'N Honey Black Bean Dip from the Meal Makeover Moms. The recipe was very easy to make as all I had to do was throw it all in a blender and spin!I also made my world famous CHEX MIX to take to the Leber's on Christmas Day. After my cooking, I went to the basement to jump on my bike for a spin on the trainer. The workout today was a 10 minute warm-up, then 3 sets of 8 minutes at 85-94% and 2 minutes of rest at 65-70%, followed by 5 minutes of cool down. Following my cool down, I ran to the shower while shouting instructions to my kids to clean the front room if they wanted to open one present before heading to Rochester. By the time I was ready to head out, Camo-Man was home from goose hunting with bad news....the roads are getting bad. As a mode of self-preservation, I lived in denial for a while telling myself,
The roads aren't that bad. We can still make it. Springfield probably isn't getting anything now.
Once ready, I let the girls each pick a gift for their sisters to open. It was fun listening to them negotiate which present to pick and they actually cooperated very nicely with each other. Everyone got to open the present they really wanted to open although I'm not sure they loved what they got.Diva Princess got some new feetie pajamas. Last year, her last pair of feeties broke and the tears wouldn't end. This year mom got smart and bought 3 pairs to get us through the winter. It's not easy to find size 10 feetie pajamas!
A new duffle bag for Sunshine....after watching her stuff her basketball gear into an open top bag, we thought it was time she got a new bag to carry her stuff around in. Organization is the key to keeping little Miss Sunshine up and running. Her 2nd gift was a pair of fuzzy socks. Not exactly exciting, but Sunshine does like funky socks. Hollywood opened her 2 gifts. She also got some fuzzy, funky socks, but her other gift was the one that made this mom the happiest. A new hair dryer! Every morning Hollywood sneaks into my bathroom and uses my hair dryer. Now maybe she can keep all of her stuff upstairs.
Princess' 2nd gift was the one she was looking forward to opening the most. She couldn't guess what it was and when I told her it was a two part gift, she nearly burst! Fortunately, Hollywood was in a good mood and let her open that gift. It was the Furrlicious Beanbag from PB Teen. Being the DIVA that she is, she LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it and couldn't stop saying THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
Now it was decision time. After a few texts and checking a few online websites, reality came crashing in....no family time, no 2 for 1 pizza from Little Caesars, no ping pong for me. The day would be lonely and sad.
No RUN-AROUND-THE-PING-PONG-TABLE with my crazy sisters and fun loving nieces and nephews. (snif snif)
No giggling, laughing, and teasing with the people who mean the most to me. (whah!) God and my dearly departed parents blessed me with the most wonderful family.
No silliness....like riding scooters in the basement or telling stories from our youth about the wild and crazy things we used to do.
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| Tangy Tomato Dip from Fitness Magazine |
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