merry christmas everyone!

my christmas started late last night/very early this morning with chasing the cats away from the packages for the second and third time since we got home last night. both vagner and ororo love the glittery bows and ribbon. i wasn't quite awake and since i use the water sprayer to deal with animals doing things they aren't supposed to and being in places they aren't supposed to be, i was a little worried about soaking the packages. but this morning all was well.

we gathered in the living room for breakfast. no hot cocoa, and we usually eat together at the table, but this was nice. saxy made his pancakes and we all sat and watched vh1 christmas videos while we ate and talked. it was very comfortable. even without a tree and decorations and all the usual trimmings, it felt very much like christmas. even saxy, who is usually perpetually grumpy (we've joked that if he wasn't grumpy, we wouldn't know what to do with him) was very relaxed. even the cats were gathered around us. one of the kids dropped a piece of pancake and you could see the disappointment in vagner's face when jewel picked it up and threw it out.

once the plates and cups were cleared away, the kids opened gifts. there were a few things for us, but we told them to open theirs first since we each only had one or two. some of the gifts didn't seem quite appropriate, but i'm sure that's because the family didn't know us well and doesn't understand taz's disabilities. they gave him a few building sets for various superhero type shows (transformer like things), which may be good for fine motor skill work, but he's definitely going to need adult help. we figure linnorm can spend some time with him doing that, and saxy can do one with him too. he also got hotwheels cars, which he loves, and a slinky, which we're going to try to get him to use instead of the finger spinning. that will take some time transferring over, but i'm really hoping we can get him to make that transition eventually. it'll be less damaging to his hands.

the stuff for the girls seemed a little more appropriate: bead kits, caboodles lip gloss (froggy has love, jewel is a star), a little avon bath set with a puff (froggy is all gardenia, jewel is all blue orchid). then there were the present that were different. for froggy: modeling clay (from cousin em), a necklace, and another bath set (peach). for jewel: face cleanser, a makeup kit, and another set of lip gloss (from cousin em). cousin em gave saxy some wooden kitchen spoons, which made him a happy cook, and me a bear figurine which now sits on my desk. froggy made saxy a copper picture frame, me a cardboard box all colored and decorated (also now sitting on my desk), a snowflake for taz, and an abstract portrait for jewel.

the kids loved their gifts, and the cats enjoyed watching. they really wanted to get into the wrapping paper and ribbons and had to be sprayed a few times. ororo finally settled along the outside of our circle and watched, waiting for the moment when we were cleaning up to poke her head in the trash bag to hunt for an appropriate paper ball. vagner, however, is a daring cat and kept coming back and getting into things and getting spritzed.

we then set the kids off to clean up the paper and all that and will soon be sharing our christmas gift with them. they've known about harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban - we picked it up on sale when it first came out, but today they actually get to see it. they're all real hp fans (what child isn't!?), so they'll really enjoy this.

wonder if the cats will come and watch that with us too?