Home for the Holidays

People started asking this question last year: "Are you coming home for the holidays?"



I think they were asking if we were coming back to Kansas and Missouri for Christmas.  That must be it.  Because we were home for the holidays.  California is now home.  Our house is our home.  And yes, we stayed home.  No crazy holiday schedules.  No rushing around.  None of it.  No eating things I'm allergic to while people shrug.  No family forgetting to invite me to a Christmas party on my father's birthday.  No snide remarks.  No rushing out the door on Christmas morn as soon as we shoved pancakes down our throats. We were home. In California.  For the holidays.


It was peaceful.



And while we do miss family from time to time, we're not even going to pretend that the peace isn't nice.  Oh no.  We love it.  All of it.  Every little bit of it.  And we do feel a wee bit guilty for enjoying it that much, but don't knock it until you try it.  Seriously.

I had these Nestle cookie cut out sheets from the 99 cent store, so My Favorite Two put them to good use for Santa.

Meanwhile, the cat moved into another box.

That's what she does.  She can cram herself into anything.  She's a cat.

The big furry beast and I have had some chats about this tree.  Not only did she eat a bowl full of baked orange slices, but ever since, I have come home to this.  And this being a mess of ribbon and jingle bell twine.

At this point, it's a good time to tell you how the two of them set up a card table in the living room so they could watch A Christmas Story on television while decorating their cookies for Santa.  They also watched their traditional Christmas movie, Gremlins.  Because nothing says Christmas quite like little monsters running around a town terrorizing people.

Luckily, I remembered to stock up on some sprinkles after our baking party.  The girls went through a lot of them, so I replenished our supply that afternoon at Michael's.

She was decorating a cockroach cookie.

We bought a gingerbread house set, a fancy one, but she decided to use the leftovers from our gingerbread village sets from the party instead.

Opening our standard one present on Christmas Eve.

And yes, that spot on her shirt in the photos is bugging me even more than it could possibly bug you.

She gave us these odd looks.  And it was because she thought it was a dress, and not the typical pajamas we get her for Christmas.  Nope, a night gown.  Not a dress.

We almost forgot to put Santa's cookies and milk out.  And the reindeer's carrots too.

We left out a cookie for Kirby too.

You will only understand what she's hugging if you're familiar with the game, Portal.  Which is a geek thing.

But it's an inflatable turret.

 A Manga drawing book.

Although she's read all of them from the library, she really wanted her own set of Minecraft books.

She wanted this game most.

She's obsessed with the Would You Rather...? books.

She had really been wanting this game.

And Mister Man had this fabulous little book given to him.

Not all of the presents would fit in the house.

She was incredibly excited over her basketball goal.    It was on her Christmas list last year too.  And now she finally has one.  Video games. Basketball goal.  Robots.  Minecraft books.  Inflatable Turret.  And Monster High Dolls.  She is such an interesting child, isn't she?