Squishmush Tim(e)
Survived!
I'm usually ickysick on Christmas but this year I was only minisick; Maryl took the brunt of it; on Christmas eve, a fever, zonked out on the couch; me, just a sniffle I refused to make grow worse: full fledged christickness.
Holden made out like a bandit this year, and doesn't even realize it (as most 5-year olds go). He was accosted with gifts of all variety from a slew of relatives, at a varied number of actual Christmas-places. Ours, as previously mentioned (I think), was set up Nightmare afore Christmas style, with skeletons lit up and pumpkins bright orange, glowing spiders, and giant eyes adorning the tree. Gifts were wrapped in the usual style: 1am the day of Christmas, stuffed under the tree, and I remembered all of my old traditions mom instigated, such as!
*Waking up on Christmas morning to new, fancy pjs or blanket (pjs this time for Holden). Poor Holden. He woke up, got his gift, came into our room and said, "I hope it's not clothes!!!! I know it's not clothes!!!" - when he opened it, he was visibly shook. What is this, why did you do this to me his eyes spoke. His voice trembling a bit, he asked plaintively, "Is this all there is for Christmas?" Yes! Was both of our reply: is it cruel, or is it funny, or is it a lesson to teach of the joys of sarcasm? He was a trooper, he held back his tears - barely, and tried to say thank you. What a delicious boy.
*Another tradition from my olden days: wrapped up sugar-cereals. We've been very good with H, avoiding the typical lucky charms/fruitloop shenanigans and opting more for the raisin brans and cheerios. As a child Mom would wrap up our favorite cereals for christmas. An especial joy for a youngster, as anything wrapped up is automatically 85% more tastier.
*Saving best present for last: I'm sure everyone does this, and I'm sure a lot hide it as well to pull out at the last second as a super duper extra surprise. The twist this year was having him search for it. What he found was a D-Rex! It scared him, then delighted him, then bored him, then delighted him, then bored him again. It's sitting somewhere in his room - I hear him play with it once in a while so I guess the $100 was well worth it! :P It's funny, the toy he liked most was a small package of silly puddy. What can you do? Well I lie, what he plays with most is Kirby for the DS. Thattaboy!
New Year's, we promised him he could stay up as late as he wanted to. Last year this ended up being around 9:30, perhaps due to the fact that it was just me and mom watching movies in the dark on the futon. This year however was tremendously different. Maryl's dad, step mom, and a sis came by to party. My goodness did Maryl put out a nice spread - prosciutto, pepperoni sticks, 3 types of fancy cheeses, spicy hummus dip with pita chips, various types of crackers, pickles, olives; we didn't even get into the nacho chips and salsa. Games were played, including a pictionary type game on Holdy's chalkboard. I'm horrible at these games, even worse than Holden! His rendition of a candy cane was SPOT ON. Aw, get this. Maryl's dad whispered something in his ear "kitten", and Holden nodded, but said, "OK, but I won't draw it alive." Maryl's dad retelling the story later, said he thought to himself, Oh god did they happen across a dead cat recently? Am I traumatizing the poor boy? Holden, to the group just before drawing said, "This is something we eat for dinner". ???
He drew a lovely drumstick for a "chicken". Crisis averted.
Dice games were played, pizza was ordered - the countdown was watch live stream on a laptop since we have no cable tv. Here's the thing though, Holden was going strong, not even a wink tired. When 1am rolled around and people dragged themselves home, and we told him it was bedtime, he was honestly confused! I thought I could stay up all night? I'm not tired though! We told him he could play his ds for as long as he wanted, and indeed we heard him plunking away on it for an hour+ afterward.