Merry Christmas

Well, the gifts are unwrapped, the stockings dumped out, and the ham is nestled quietly in a bed of butter, brown sugar, and water in the crock pot.

We opted for a breakfast of bacon, cinnamon rolls, and hash browns, with a much later dinner than normal. Usually, we do dinner mid-afternoon on Holidays. Most often before 2pm. Today, we're going to do a later dinner. For dinner, we have a ham, and a turkey.

I won a $15 Butterball coupon here at Gather, so that was used to buy an almost 10 pound Turkey for only $1.95. I've always had ham on Christmas, so I also bought a small boneless ham. We have stuffing, rolls, corn, noodles, green beans, yams, and more to make.

We'll have left overs for days! Actually, this time around we'll probably be freezing a good deal of it, because we will be gone most of Saturday, over night through most of Sunday for Christmas parties at my mom's, my dad's, and my grandma's.

My mood was much improved by a night of sleep, though I was less than impressed with the kids being up at 4:30 and starting to bug us. I hope they nap today. We allowed them to get into their stockings, but the gifts were off limits until we woke up.

We finally gave up trying to sleep at 6:30. I was exhuasted, mostly due to the xanax. I'm hyper sensitive to medications, and while Xanax works great for my panic attacks, it also leaves me feeling sedated for quite some time.

I'm more wide awake now, though. We just had our breakfast. Thanks to several freebies, and deals for under $5, we have a lot of new movies to watch. The big gift for Nick was Hancock on Blu-Ray. Columbia House had a buy 1 get 1 free deal two weeks ago, so I snatched up Hancock and Fred Claus on Blue-Ray for less than $30, free shipping.

The kids each got a new pillow and blanket, plus Santa also got them each a new pair of PJ's, so they each got 2 pairs between last night and today. Raegan got almost a whole new wardrobe of shirts, thanks to the cheap Goodwill. I found her about 15-20 shirts and sweaters all in new condition, many brand names, for under $1 each. She also got a jean jacket and two jean-style jackets of corduroy. 2 purses, too, plus a caboodles filled with name brand makeup I got for free, or really cheap with sales and coupons. And all in colors that will look good on her.

I also got her a silver chain necklace that came in a little lady bug jewelry box- another dirt cheap Goodwill purchase for $.29. On her head right now is a black skull cap style stocking cap with the Juno movie logo on the front- brand new in the package for $.29 at Goodwill.

Gillian got a big stack of books for early readers- lots of Bernstein Bears books, again, all found at Goodwill. Some were as much as $.59, some were half off $.59 on color tag sale days, and some were found in the clearance center for 10/$1.

Gillian was thrilled with her DS, and her Viva Pinata game for the 360. Last weekend, I found a 3 pack of games at Walmart for only $30. It had Viva Pinata, Shrek the Third, and a Sonic game. We opened it, seperated them into a gift for each of the kids, and we were able to give them each a 360 game for $10 each. Plus, the money was donated to a Children's charity.

We also gave them two new Scene It games for the 360- both were free. One was earned at Club Live, the other was from Houseparty.com.

I got another new nightgown (pink fleece with cupcakes on it!), an air popper for popcorn, the Tudors season 1, Angel season 1, some warm socks, and some other odds and ends. I can't wait to watch my movies and drink cocoa, and just relax. Oh, and I got seasons 1 & 2 of Supernatural ($14 each!).

I got Nick 2 magazine subscriptions for free- he loves reading magazines. He also got a box that had Candy Cane coffee, Creme Brulee coffee, Praline creamer, and mint-chocolate fudge ice cream topping in it. I found House season 3 on DVD for only $15 a few weeks ago, too. Last year, I got him season 1 & 2 for $12 each. Season 3 should have been $35. However, the tag from Black Friday was still on the shelf, saying that House season 3 was only $15, so Walmart gave it to me for $15.

Maybe now that the stressful parts of Christmas are over with, I can enjoy myself a bit more. Saturday I'll be picking my niece Morgan up at the meeting spot- her mother lives in Frankenmuth, her father in Grand Rapids. They meet halfway to exchange- well, the halfway spot is only 45 minutes from me, so while it'll add time to our trip on Saturday, it's easier for me to grab Morgan.

Saturday night, we're doing Christmas at my mom's house with my brothers and sister. Sunday, we're doing brunch at my Dad's house with my brother, then Sunday afternoon, dinner at my Grandma B's house.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope your Christmas morning has been enjoyable so far!