Merry Christmas

Despite the 6am phone call from my sister informing me that her kid vomited at midnight (yes, the same sister who bitched twice on her blog about me calling her at 8:30pm on a Friday night when I thought I was going to have to put down my dog). Apparently she's under the delusion that 6am was a better time to call me than midnight, you know, b/c 90% of the time I'm actually awake at midnight and 99% of the time I'm not awake at 6am. So when I less than politely requested that she not ever call at that hour again unless someone was dead (and BTW at least I had the audacity to do it in person instead of using my blog), she snapped at me and hung up on me. It was really a lovely way to start Christmas. You know, it reminded me of Christmas Vacation...

But, pressing on like Clark W. Griswold, Jr, I decided that we would nonetheless "have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced w/Danny "F-bomb" Kaye in White Christmas and ...(be) the jolliest a$$holes this side of the nuthouse" anyway. I roasted my 18lb turkey, made my breakfast casserole, and watched my son open his stocking gifts. Cassie woke up, I changed one of the most digusting diapers of my life, changed her, fed her, and watched Chase open her stocking stuffers. Jamie vacuumed, I did some last minute things and then my dad and in laws arrived w/in minutes of each other.

Unbeknownst to my father-in-law, Santa hid Chase's big present in the basement. Since Jim didn't know the basement was off limits (JAMIE!), he let Chase lead him down into the basement to play a computer game. Well, like Jamie said, "At least we HEARD Chase's reaction to the ball pit/slide combo...." He also loved his Legos from Santa (Grandpa Jim spent a good five hours helping him assemble them) and ALL his presents from Grandpa Bill!

Dinner turned out great (did I mention we had 18lbs of turkey plus 1/2 a ham for six people?) and we actually got to use the dining room and Mom's Christmas china. Chase had a blast, Cass had a good time when she was awake (poor baby has a wicked cold, as does Grandpa Bill) and all in all, despite the rough start to the day (to her credit, my sister did call and apologize) we had a really good day.

Despite the 80lb per person weight limit, I'm off to play in the bounce house. I figure since Chase is only 45lbs, we're still under the 160 total limit...