Holiday, holy-day, ho-ho-ho-day

What? Christmas is over? No way!

But that does bring us to a rather overdue Christmas update. It was Catherine's first Christmas! Oh boy did she enjoy herself. Lots of family visits, lots of fun, lots of toys. Do I mean toys that Santa brought? Not necessarily. I was very thankful for our family going easy on gifts for her. But she did like what she got. But her favorite toys? The ribbons. Silly girl.
I'm going to miss out on fun stories unless I start at the beginning.

We got to visit with most of her godfamily the Friday before Christmas. Her godmother, Camille, was in town and we managed to squeeze our busy schedules together and met at the mall for lunch and shopping with Nancy and Greg (two of Catherine's gRodparents) and Katie, Camille's little sis, who we have now determined is her god-aunt. We had lunch at the Rainforest-Cafe . If you haven't been there, it's an uber-elaborate, over the top stimulation, part zoo, part theme park, part restaurant. It's the only place that I know of where the directions to the bathroom include "around the elephant and under the rainbow". Catherine had so much fun watching the gorillas dance and the fish in the aquariums... oh, and her gRodfather Greg, too. They had so much fun together. Time with her godmother Camille is never long enough, but I am so glad that I got to see such a dear friend.

Christmas Eve morning we took a short road trip to visit Stephen's dad and his girlfriend Lynn for brunch and presents. I had fun dressing Catherine up in a pretty Christmas dress that Camilly and Nancy got for her. It was a little big on her, but it was so cute and pretty that I couldn't pass it up. Catherine and Toby had a lot of fun running around at brunch, but were hard to contain once we got to his dad's house. They can be such troublemakers, but it doesn't help being in a house that is so clean and has breakable stuff EVERYwhere. Regardless, we had a lot of fun.

I meant to go to the midnight mass that night, which normally I love going to. But I was SO tired. Man, am I bad Catholic! But I was sure that God would forgive me choosing rest and sanity as my primary priority.

Christmas day! Yeah! In the morning we went to Jen and Phil's. After the traditional picture on the stairs (when they were kids, they weren't allowed to come downstairs to open presents until everyone was awake and gathered on the stairs for a picture), we dove into the pile of presents. Stephen had a test of patience when he opened a present that was a Wii box - but no Wii! We told him that Phil managed to get the box from a friend at work. Wow, was he mad. Luckily for us he took it in stride. And this part of the story has a happy ending anyways.


Christmas dinner at our place went very well. We had to get super creative in rearranging the furniture in our main room so that everyone would fit. Check out my creative paper plate settings!
After the food was cleared we pushed aside the table and made room for more presents! Stephen and I were so greatful for all of our gifts, and also thankful that the gifts we gave were well received. But the star of the evening: Stephen's Wii. We finally got a chance to grant his wish (he's been bugging me about it for over a year now), and it has been worth it. It really is worth all of the hype. I've even had a chance to play a little on it, and it's awesome!

The day after Christmas Stephen got to spend time with one of his best friends, Matt, who is also Catherine's godfather. They got a chance to be just boys in the afternoon, but then Matt got to spend some quality time with Catherine in the evening. The most entertaining thing was Catherine's reaction to the Vancils' tiny energetic dog. She was terrified of him and would run away, but then curiousity would get the better of her and she would chase after him, who would take that as an invitation to play so he would chase her and then she would run away.... again and again. It was hilarious! I am kicking myself for not having our camera with us that night.

More visits with family rounded out the week. We visited Stephen's extended family in Salem, Oregon, and then stopped by to see my family in Vancouver on the way home. Fun was had by all.

But needless to say, after all of this, I could use a break. Well, no rest for the weary!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday filled with fun and love. Cheers to 2008!