Christmas 2008: A Recap

For us, it began early Wednesday afternoon. I was "working from home" so I had plenty of time to spend with the LM. We visited my mom's sister, my Aunt Merilee, for a lunch of coneys. Isaac was going to be with John and his family that evening, when we traditionally celebrate with my mom's side, which is now down to my mom and her sister, so I wanted him to have a chance to visit my Aunt Merilee and Uncle Don. Plus, my mom's oldest brother, Kent, and his wife Carol were visiting from Texas, and I hadn't seen them since my grandmother passed away when I was 13. We had a nice visit, and Isaac got to open his first Christmas present, a V-tech talking, singing book from his aunt and uncle. (I had somehow, miraculously, managed to refrain from giving him and of his presents early. It was tough, believe me.)

After we left Merilee and Don's, we went home for a nap and then to Brookside Body Piercing to visit "Aunt Lauren" (a good friend I've known since 2002 who insists she is destined for aunthood, not motherhood) and receive our second gift of the season. Lauren warned me that she bough him a hoodie that looked like something she would wear and tht, if I didn't like it, I could take it back, but I thought the blue and black houndstooth pullover was adorable. Can't wait to see him in it.

Here, he hasn't quite gotten the hang of digging into his gifts, but, by day three (we had four days of Christmas), he knew exactly what to do.

That bag lit up and play music, by the way. It was pretty sweet.

That night, Isaac visited his Nana and Papa Robinson, where he got more gifts and Mommy got a case of diapers, some baby food, a gift certificate to Gardner's and a Jim Shore figurine, all of which she was very grateful for.

(By the way, I love Jim Shore's stuff. I think it is beautiful. I've never much cared about Christmas decorations, other than trees and twinkling lights, and his stuff is the first I've ever wanted to collect. So far, Sandra is the only one who's picked up on that, and she's gotten me figurines for the past two years. I LOVE THEM.)

John came over Thursday morning to watch Isaac receive his stocking from Santa/Mommy and open the beau coups of gifts he had waiting for him under the tree. See?

They're not all for him, and they're not all from me, but a lot of them were both. John brought his gifts over, too, instead of having Isaac open them Christmas Eve, so he had a lot of work to do.

Here is his stocking, pre-filled. My mom made it. It is almost as big as he is. Hell, it may be even bigger. If you'll notice, it's handing from a hook sitting atop the dresser I use as an entertainment center, and it reaches past the fourth drawer. My mother put a lot of pressure on me. I'm the one who has to fill that sucker every year.

It definitely has that ugly, homemade look to it, but I absolutely adore it. We all have stockings this size that my mother has made for us over the years, and they all have their own, special idiosyncrasies. Isaac also had one that my mother keeps at her house that has a big Santa face on it. And the "s" in his name is crooked on that one, too.

This year in his stocking, Santa brought some cool, kid-sized art books from Philbrook, an Ugly Doll, a maraca and some bells and squishy blocks from Target. He loved the musical instruments the best




From his dad he got a V-tech crawling ball and a Shop and Learn shopping cart. From me, he got a wodden cube with activities on all sides, a Melissa and Doug shape sorter and a Plan Toys drum from Lundeby's Eco Baby.


After opening his gifts, he and I went to my parents' house, where he had another stocking and more presents waiting. There, he got more books, some badly-needed pajamas, a toy organizer (not really a box, but shelves with different-sized bins) and another V-tech ball. We went to my uncle's (dad's youngest brother) in west Tulsa and dined on a traditional (read" delicious) Christmas dinner and played a dirty Santa game. I walked away with a bottle of red wine and a box of Hot Tamales, but the wine fell out of my car and smashed on the curb in front of my apartment. Deeming it salvageable in any way (although I definitely thought about how I could possibly sop the wine up from the cement), I picked up the glass and threw it away. What a dirty trick Santa played on me. I blame him.

Friday night, I took the LM for a short road trip to Stillwater, where we visited UTW's cinema editor Cory, his wife Stephanie and their precious baby girl Kaia for yet another delicious meal, consisting mainly of meat (that's definitely not a complaint).

Kaia and Isaac exchanged gifts (here's where Isaac started to get the hang of it. He went straight for the bag, tipped it over toward him, and started to pull the tissue paper out), and their mommies planned their future arranged marriage. Seriously, it would be like joining the two cutest babies on the planet. I'm pretty sure that's what they call a match made in heaven.

Isaac was pretty jealous that Kaia, being the older, wiser, more mature woman she is, can already crawl and he can't, but, luckily, her gift to him was an inflatable thing (? not sure the word) with balls inside that is supposed to encourage crawling. Yippee! Next time they meet, he can chase her sound the living room.

Really. Tell me these aren't the two most adorable babies you've ever seen. Kaia's the only kid I've seen with eyes bigger and bluer than LM's. You could get lost in them.



Isaac made lots of new friends that night. Not surprisingly, they were all women. He kind of has a way of stealing your heart.

Christmas concluded Saturday night when my BF Chalyn and her hubby Chris dropped by with more gifts, which included a ball popper thing for I-Man. You drop the balls in, they follow a maze down a tube, and then pop out of the contraption without warning, At least, that's what the box says they do. I was one D battery short of getting the thing to work, so Isaac just tried to eat the balls. There are five. Someone remind me of that when I think I've lost one. Or all of them.


I'm not sure Christmas could have been any better. The absolute best part was the time I had to spend with LM. Five days in a row! I Should work from home more often. I think Isaac enjoyed the time, too; it was hard for both of us when I went back to work Monday. For the first time, Isaac cried when I left him. Cried and reached for me and pretty much broke my heart. I'm thinking it's about time to put one of my harebrained schemes into action so I can work for myself and have more time with my LM.

I hope everyone else has a merry a Christmas as we did. I'm already looking forward to next year (but still hoping time doesn't go by too quickly).