A Merry Christmas ....notwithstanding

Its been a very merry Christmas despite the fact that I have been sick since last Friday so the days leading up to the holiday where very stressful and not enjoyable to say the least.

Its no fun having to pack and deliver gifts, clean the house and shop for Christmas brunch and deal with a headstrong toddler while feeling unwell and barely being able to croak a few words without my throat hurting.

But I struggled through office work on Mon/Tue and got it all done in my few moments of feeling somewhat energetic.

Notwithstanding that whole saga.....

Christmas has been really fun this year especially with Beanie being older. She sees the presents and thinks its "happ birday" :-)

Yesterday we went to my sister's for Christmas eve dinner and opened presents from the family. It was an enjoyable evening and my sister is now interacting with Beanie a lot more - talking with her, calling her "sweetie" etc so it makes me feel a lot better about things between us. Beanie made out like a bandit and got some really fun toys and books.

Also, Beanie is getting more familiar with the family so she enjoyed herself, behaved admirably, loved playing with their "titty" (aka kitty) and was the life if the party until we left at 10:30pm.  She came home and was out the moment her little head hit the  pillow!!  I too slept a straight 7 hours which is amazing given I have been sleeping poorly the past few days. In fact I think its the first time I slept that long in almost 2 years!!!

Today I hosted Christmas brunch. I was a bit stressed about how I would get the food cooked with Beanie around since she constantly needs my attention, but I got her busy with opening her stocking and she was occupied long enough that I could get few things done. My parents came about 30 min before the rest of the family so I could get the eggs cooked.

It was a good brunch. Everyone enjoyed the food and later we unveiled the kitchen set I had got Beanie and laboriously built over the last couple of weeks - all by myself. I am so proud of me - lol!

OMG --- she LOVED it!!

She played happily by herself for 40 minutes while we all had coffee and played scrabble!

She was busy cooking eggs (I had put some Easter eggs in a small carton of eggs), washing, putting things in/out of the microwave etc. She did not like the red apron I bought her though :-(

After everyone left she said he wanted to go up to sleep since she was "tired" and slept for almost 3 hours - so did I!

In the evening Beanie and I hung out together, listening to Christmas carols, we played with her new toys and read some new books she got. It was a lovely, warm, snuggly evening, and I felt so very blessed to have her in my life!

Hope you all had a joyful and peaceful Christmas!

Looking at the ornaments on Grammy's small tree!