Merry Christmas!

 Aah.. Christmas. By far one of my favorite times of year. Usually. This year, it's been especially hard for me, what with being so huge and tired. I must say this pregnancy has been more difficult than I anticipated. After a ruptured ectopic and an emergency exploratory abdominal surgery only a year ago, my body is just not holding up the way it should. Thus- at the end of my third trimester-  a short fuse and 0 energy seem to rule the day. I've still enjoyed the season. The kids and I made cookies a few times-

Morrigan loves gingerbread "cookie-mans" and Wesley prefers sugar cookie "Melted snowmen"

Playing Santa was a kick, too. We opened up presents last night and set out cookies and milk for the fat guy. Wesley insisted that the reindeer needed a snack too, so a bowl of water and some carrots were left out as well. Fortunately, both the kids are pretty hard sleepers, so the gifts were out by 11, and I was able to hit the sheets at a decent hour. We awoke to the boy having a near panic attack on the couch by himself ( out of sheer excitement that "Santa REALLY did come!") Opened our gifts with a minimum of chaos, and got right down to the business of DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Finally around 5pm, I made spaghetti and the kids hit the sack early after a long day of sugar highs and toys that either pee, stomp, or beep.

 You heard right.
Spaghetti.

Normally we'd be in Spokane, WA with family, participating in the family gift exchange, eating, turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, and stuffing. But this year, I am just too pregnant. I'm too pregnant to travel, too pregnant to cook, and FAR too pregnant to force my kids to behave in the presence of company. Really.

No really.

Morrigan is still not sleeping- despite having been sent to bed for bad behavior 2 hours ago. But am I- the perpetually pregnant behemoth on the couch- going to march upstairs and force her to obey?
No. I'm tired. My feet are swollen. The braxton hicks contractions DO actually hurt, no matter what the websites say. I'm not going up there. And the only bad thing that might come of it, is she'll fall asleep with the light on and we'll have to turn it off later. Big deal.
Now if we were company in someone else's house, it might never have gone as far as early bedtime. I would have worked up the oomph to convince her to be nice long before that point.
That would have required more energy than I have at the moment, so here we are, at home, picking oregano out of our teeth.
 And honestly, as soon as the day's completely over, and I'm next to the love of my life watching movies in bed, it will have been
The Best Christmas Ever.

hands down.

Merry Christmas!