so far the only irritation this christmas is the bickering between the two older girls. kitten is visiting for 2 weeks. you'd think they'd let it go, especially after being asked to let christmas be a good one.

beyond that, it's been a good christmas eve so far. we had a little bit of a late lunch with a sandwich platter. we did make a trip to the grocery store for some dinner fixings for tonight, but otherwise kitten and i baked until time to open the christmas eve gift. we let kitten open it as our guest. we'd bought the kiddles madagascar and shark's tale. we watched the first one as a family, the second will be watched by the younglings while saxy, kitten, and i make dinner. kitten and i are now finishing up the last of the baking. it's rather late, but i don't want anything left for tomorrow - we're going to have our usual christmas morning which never includes final baking.

i had actually hoped to watch a movie - we've got several we haven't watched yet - but it's too late, i suppose. by the time kitten and i are done, we'll all need sleep. kitten and i will decorate the table we'll be using for the buffets tomorrow and maybe start putting together the decorations for the dinner table, but we'll see on that.

as for tomorrow, saxy will make breakfast about 10 or 10:30, then comes the gift opening. after that we get a an hour or so of peace, during which the older girls and i will set the table. jewel will straighten up the living room as well. then it'll be time to start putting together the christmas dinner. it's one of the two meals i cook out of the year. i cook occasionally the rest of the year, but that's generally been saxy's job since he moved in. he likes cooking.

anyway, after all that we'll all probably nap, maybe watch a movie. be together as a family. monday, linnorm comes out for a week. he'll probably take the kids off to spend their christmas money on tuesday. new year's eve, he and kitten get to watch the kids while saxy and i escape for our anniversary. it's going to be weird being out on our anniversary - the tradition is to spend it at home with the kids away, but we know linnorm won't want to spend the whole evening out with the kids. linnorm will be leaving the 2nd or 3rd and kitten leaves the 3rd or 4th. she wants to come with me to my in service day on monday the 3rd, but we'll see if that's even possible.

it's been a good holiday. and that little problem that sent me off to the doctor yesterday is already responding to medication and giving me a much needed break. next year i hope to get to plan even earlier than we managed for this one . . . and not have any glitches, though that may be asking too much.. even of we don't manage to plan and prepare earlier, this holiday has been what it's all about: being with family.

now we just need to get kitten off her cell phone.