Christmas celebrations are full of traditions and while I love traditions of all kinds, they do have the effect of making past holidays blend together

This year that won’t be a problem.

For starters there was Jane’s arrival.

Christmas with a two day old baby shall always be memorable.

We still went to Pewaukee for Christmas Eve and Day, for what was intended to be a small low key sort of Christmas. Just us, my Mom, Dad and Tyler.  We decided that we would still meet at Granny and Grandpa’s house even though they were in Florida.  And Granny and Gramps, if you want to stop reading now before I say any more, that might be for the best…

First off, lets just say that nothing is very low key with a four year old, a two year old,  a newborn, and a sleep deprived set of parents… and don’t forget the puppies.  While most of the dogs spent Christmas down at Mom and Dad’s by themselves, the puppies, who are fast approaching the six-month old crap head stage, were with us at the big house. You know the Family Circus cartoon? The ones where they show the tracks that the kids make as they run all over? Well Tyler’s dog Sunday would fit right in… you get him too excited and he leaves his own spotted trail behind him…all over the front steps,  your foot, your cousin’s pants…. Between Sunday’s Family Circus trails, Clara’s potty training and Jane just doing what a newborn does, it was a soggy sort of Christmas.

Soggy or not stockings were hung by the chimney with care and the next morning Jane wasn’t even upset that all  she got in her stocking was dog treats.  We moved right along to exchanging gifts, which went pretty well.  Only one tearful incident  and so long as someone kept an eye on Clara, who wanted to open everyone’s presents for them, gifts eventually made it to whom they were intended for.

Then there was dinner. Due to a combination of the new baby and Clara’s food restrictions, it was planned to be a much simpler meal than we normally have. Then it got even simpler when we opened the oven and stared flabbergasted at a turkey that wasn’t even close to done. Since the family routinely roasts large chickens and turkeys as an “easy” meal, the half-done turkey was a shock to everyone. But no worries, we were also having venison loin on the grill… which was great, except that it ran out of gas. Fortunately my family likes rare meat, really, rare meat.  After making it through dinner (thank goodness for the dog under the table to get the dropped food) we were ready for the annual lighting of the Christmas pudding.  A few false starts later, the chemist excused himself to the kitchen to help light the brandy and we only almost burned up Tyler’s place mat in the lighting of the pudding. (Really Granny… it’s fine!) 

All in all it was a Christmas to remember!