We knew Christmas was nearing when our Amaryllis bloomed two weeks before December 25. Lovey gave us the amaryllis bulb while they were here over Thanksgiving. The kids woke up each morning and ran into the sunroom watching it grow - and one beautiful morning at 6am (before the sunrise), Talula woke us up yelling "it's here, it's here!" It was beautiful to see: the kids seeing first-hand all of their hard work finally paid off.
That's when the joy left me and stress began to creep in. Christmas is approaching. The kids will be home full-time. I haven't done any shopping. We don't even know where our Christmas tree is. The kids are politely demanding extensive holiday decorations inside and outside this year. Michael and I are trying to get our arms around what Christmas means to our family, so we can begin to answer questions like "How will Santa get into our house when there is no chimney?" and "Will Santa bring us anything we ask for?" We just finished getting the house in order after extensive cooking and festivities for Thanksgiving. And, here we are - 2 weeks out!
So, how do you eat the elephant? One bite at a time.
I called Uncle Joey and pleaded for him to come over and put up the Christmas tree and lights (I failed to mention he also had to find the tree). This turned out to be a very fun day (for Michael and me anyway). We sat in the kitchen drinking wine (the kids hot chocolate) and watched Joey put together this 12 foot tall artificial tree that had more color coded and letter coded wires than any of us could count! And then, when he finally got the tree together...he found there were entire strings of lights that were not working. Once he was successful, we were able to look back on this "family fun project" and laugh. Not sure what unsuspecting soul we can get to help out next year???
The children decorated the entire tree on their own - with the help of a ladder for the high points. This is the first year we actually put ornaments on the lower branches, as the kids are much older and won't bother them. In fact, we put 90% of the ornaments on the lower branches, as that's where they could reach! The end result was a tree that the kids took pride in. They were all very pleased with their work.
Uncle Trey visited at the beginning of his college break - and brought home his girlfriend from school, Brittany. She is at Clemson as well (and is from Charleston). So, I have a feeling we'll see more of Trey now that he has extra incentive to visit down this way! Michael cooked a beef tenderloin from Whole Foods and both of my brothers spent the night with us. This is probably one of the first times in years we were all together. And, this caused HUGE confusion for the children. They had never seen Uncle Trey and Uncle Joey simultaneously. It took a bit of time for them to understand that I have TWO brothers. Very funny?!?!
So, school ended for the kids on December 21. There was a very nice holiday party at the Montessori school and all the kids made presents for Michael and me. They insisted we open them that night. Wilhelmina made dough ornaments for our Christmas tree; Talula made a handmade, handpainted dough angel; Kells made a popsicle stick candle holder with glitter and paint; and Bowen made a gingerbread house from scratch (he later told me he spent 4 days at school making it)...Just as a side, Uncle Joey has never made a gingerbread house. So, he volunteered to do one of the kits with the kids while I ran errands. This was one of the holiday highlights. After the very chaotic and messy event, we all realized how special Bowen's house was! At one point, I overheard Bowen tell Uncle Joey that this event has been a total nightmare...
Well, who knew one of my personal nightmares was going to come true two days later. We lost Tazzy on December 23. It was a very sad day for everyone. He has been struggling for the last few weeks, and we all knew this day would come. We had time to say our goodbyes. We are managing the loss well, but it is very strange not having him around. He was 15 1/2 years old. We had him cremated and will hold a memorial service for him at the beach next week to allow all of us to have one last opportunity to say goodbye.
On a more positive note, we made a point of making gifts for family and friends this year - in hopes that the children would appreciate the importance of giving during this time (instead of simply receiving)...So, we took many walks on the beach in search of sand dollars and starfish and clams for ornaments; we painted dough ornaments for the Christmas tree; we made jewelry and bookmarks out of yarn; we had photos of each of the kids made for parents and grandparents; we drew pictures of Christmas for our cousins; I made apple chutney and organic trail mix for teachers and friends; we gave to our favorite charities and will adopt a family for 2010 through the Montessori school; and we had a number of amazing meals and glasses of wine with so many of our loved ones! All in all, the children had a pretty awesome holiday and never once focused on "what they got" (and more importantly "what they didn't get"); although I must admit that the Hulk Smash glow-in-the-dark masks from Uncle Pancakes took the "favorite gift" award by far and got much attention! Baby steps :)
Christmas Eve was a pretty extensive day. I spent the morning shopping at Whole Foods - Mental note: DO NOT go to Whole Foods on Christmas Eve morning EVER AGAIN! We were in charge of the ham for Christmas Eve at Aunt Allison and Uncle Van's house. So, we baked 2 hams that afternoon. Aunt Corinne spent the morning baking Monster Cookies (oatmeal, M&Ms, and chocolate chips) with the 4 children. Michael drank coffee and cleaned up after the bakers :). We dressed up the kids in red sweaters for the Christmas play, and we drove out to the suburbs for a lovely party. The food was awesome; Aunt Madeleine and Mr. Chris won the Obama commemorative plate for the best dish and best presentation (butternut squash soup) - this was a pretty funny site (as they are both the MOST anti-Obama folks I know). The play was interesting, to say the least - just imagine a play put on by 5 children (the oldest one being 6 years old). Thanks to Aunt Sheryl, we had a fully decorated set, complete with elves, reindeer, the baby Jesus, Mrs. Claus, and costumes for all the little cousins (actors). The highlight was when Aunt Sheryl panicked because Santa's beard kept falling off (Bowen played Santa), and she sprayed glue on his face to just help it stick a bit (one week later, we are still peeling off cotton and glue)...Santa has forgiven the temporarily possessed Aunt Sheryl, and everyone has moved on. Sheryl is back on the babysitting list :).
We were all a little unsure if Santa would visit our house this year, as we just moved and weren't sure he could find us, we don't have a chimney, and the kiddos were a little hyped up on sugar and extremely tired after the party on Christmas Eve - apparently an elf visited daddy and told him the stop was iffy on Santa's list. But, we were all happy to see that Santa was watching and saw how quickly everyone pottied and brushed teeth and went to sleep. Uncle B, Aunt CC, Uncle Joey and all 6 Enrights were up before the sun in order to see how good Santa was to everyone. Needless to say, the morning was so much fun! We made homemade buttermilk waffles, played all morning, and then headed off for more festivities at Mrs. Camille and Mr. Eric's Christmas Day Brunch. We all played with the Labarca kiddos (Ben and Lukey - they were our neighbors on Daniel Island), and everyone was in bliss! We miss them tons and were so happy to reunite with old pals. Once we wore out our welcome, we headed home for another amazing meal - roasted duck! This has become one of Michael's specialties!
We received a surprise call from Mimi and Papa John (my mom and dad) on Christmas night announcing their plans to spend the night the following evening on their way to Florida. This was a very nice and unexpected treat - as we haven't seen them in a while. So, we had a nice meal (fresh mallard, courtesy of Eric Labarca - Michael cleaned and de-feathered them); who would have expected to have duck two nights in a row??? But, we just couldn't freeze these duck breasts - only 1 day old and beautifully cleaned and ready for eating. So, we were able to compare the Whole Foods whole duck with the fresh, wild duck breasts from Santee, SC. All I can say is they were worlds apart!
Fast Forward less than 24 hours and in comes another crew: My first cousins, Scott and Julie and their girls, Ansley and Ella. They were on their way home to Florida and stopped by for the night. We had soooo much fun hanging out with them. The kids LOVE their cousins, and we were all sad to see them leave. So, another nice meal and a late night of conversation...
It's hard to believe, but we are now without company - and have none on the docket for weeks to come. No one in this quiet beach house. Nothing to do. No one to talk to. No one to cook for. No one to clean up after. Except our crew of 6 - LOL!
It has been a joyous season. We have been so blessed to be with family and friends, to be in this amazing house at the beach, to have such decadent meals each evening, to spend each day with our beautiful children, and to have each other to snuggle up with on these cold Charleston nights.
To close 2009, on New Year's Eve Michael cooked cornish hens stuffed with fig and rosemary cornbread, roasted root vegetables from our local farmer and a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne. We all did sparklers at the beach - and invited our new neighbors who were around for the holiday. And, then finished up the night with a movie rental. What a sight to see - all 6 of us, worn out from the parties from the last days of 2009, eating popcorn and ready to begin another year together! Midnight came and went - we panicked, tucked everyone in, and got some sleep. 2010 would begin early - in about 6 hours!
