~Charlene's Web~

Sunshine, Laughter And Friends Are Always Welcome!

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Location: Ontario, Canada

I'm happily married to Mr. Man. We have 2 daughters, Big R and Little R. I'm a stay at home mom. We moved from the big city to the country, living a dream. I'm a collector and a packrat. I'd rather read a book than watch a movie. I battle depression. I love life, but that wasn't always the case. This is my journal.

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Monday, December 25, 2006

We Celebrate Being Home

Merry Christmas!

Well it's 4:30 in the afternoon and I finally got the chance to sit at the computer for a bit. I wouldn't have believed it a week ago if you told me I would be this happy, calm and relaxed. In spite of toning it down, the lack of snow, lack of family and my feelings a week ago, this year, I must say this has been the BEST Christmas ever.
On Saturday there were a few outbursts of snowfall, I guess that would be snowsqualls. We are expecting a good dumping of snow to start any time, continue on through the night and all day tomorrow! Looking forward to it. Big R isn't thrilled to have to be driving through it tomorrow from Oshawa.
Sunday was quite sunny and mild all day. R.A stopped by in the early afternoon with gifts and good cheer, which was a surprise for sure. She gave Hubby and I a bottle of wine which we consumed later, much later, in the evening.
After that visit, Hubby made up a wall of family photos in the familyroom. We've been rearranging all the pictures and paintings on the walls to accomodate the new additions.
Then K.H and B.H stopped by to drop off a card and have a drink. B left after an hour or so to continue delivering cards to the neighbourhood and K stayed for a couple more hours. Eventually their 8 year old daughter showed up, I assumed to fetch her dad and take him home, but she peeled off her coat and boots at the door, and as soon as she looked down the stairs into the familyroom, she sighed, "ooohhhh, I looooove your house...." and flew downstairs. She ran right up to the tree and stood so close to it, just staring up, and taking it all in, in awe of it all. Eventually she had me on the Santa Tracking site, and that was great fun. Nothing like an excited 8 year old on Christmas Eve to get the old Christmas Spirit flowing! I have never seen this NORAD Santa Tracking before, it was nifty. They were here for quite a while and then it was time to head home and try to calm her down and get her to bed...hehe, and good luck with that. (I had a feeling we would have some unexpected company...)
Little R, Hubby and myself had a lovely night hanging out, playing darts and drinking wine.
Lots and lots of pictures were taken.
It is one of our customary traditions to each open a gift on Christmas Eve. So we had Bear open his new bed, which was rolled up and then wrapped. Didn't he open it entirely on his own, roll the bed out, walk onto it and sniff every square inch of it, and then lay down on it! It was great. Hubbys gift was a pair of travel mugs, my gift was perfect slippers (I go through slippers like mad, always needing new ones) and Little R opened a very sweet jewellry set.
Then it was off to bed for Little R. Hubby and I polished off the wine, played some more darts (I kicked his ass lol) and then did the Santa routine.
Come 11:30, with a glowing buzz on, I decided we needed to go to midnight mass. There is a small church just around the corner. It was closed! They had their mass at 7 p.m. We missed it! Ah well, live and learn. We came home and went to bed soon after.
Today isn't over yet, but it has been an amazing day. The peace and happiness in this house is incredible. Woke up around 7:30 which is quite reasonable, its usually much earlier. Had a ringer too lol, but a big tall glass of water, a pain pill and a hot coffee (which Little R had made, ready and waiting before she got us up) took care of that in no time.
There were several highlights to our day. We got Bear one of those weener dog toys, just like in the PetSmart commercial on TV. He has carried that thing around in his mouth, just like in the commercial, all day long. I was sure he would have it shredded in seconds as he has done with other soft toys, but no, he is taking care of it, bathing it constantly, hugging it, etc. It hasn't left his side all day, hilarious. He got other toys and stuff and hasn't touched any of it. He was quite eager to open each of his presents and did so without our help or interference. Every time I stood up he watched me expectantly, hoping for another gift, it was awesome. He is part human I swear lol.
Little R got an iPod and an iPod docking thingy. Just as we did with Big R last year with her iPod, we convinced her we couldn't get one, then it was the last thing she opened, after opening several "could have been an iPod" gifts. Last year, when Big R opened hers, she pounced on me with hugs, it was a little bit painful. Little R just sat there in tears of joy....then came the hugs. And more tears when the next and very last gift was the docking thing. It was great. She got a lot of cool stuff. And loves everything. And all the clothes fit!
My favourite gift I think would have to be the little glass heart ornament from my Hubby. It came in a beautiful red satin box, its a clear glass heart with a bow on top also glass. There is gold trim and it says "Sweetheart" on it in gold. There is a little poem in the box...
Sweetheart
My heart and soul belong to you,
You've swept my cares away;
You fill my life with happiness,
I love you more each day!
Is that too much for TV or what? How sweet. How romantic. How sentimental. How beautiful. How lucky am I? So I put a little ribbon through the bow and hung it on the tree (and cried a little too).
I can't say what Hubbys highlight or favourite gift was, he's snoozing by the fire right now. But, I could guess, perhaps his foot spa...with Diabetes he has some trouble with his feet, or maybe his jean jacket because he didn't have one (and it fits!), or the Nintendo Game Cube we got for all of us, since he just finished playing it for a couple of hours straight.
We took Bear out for a walk, of course he had to bring "Robert" (the weener dog toy, we had to call it something), which gave us the opportunity to wish some of our nieghbours a Merry Christmas.
We all got a lot of lovely gifts, we are truly blessed. Even with the toning it down, there was absolutely no disappointment. I feel so content and fortunate and blessed, I can't even believe it.
The really cool thing is, we get to do it all over again tomorrow when Big R, 'Saac and P-Dot come up. We got her a pink weener dog toy and we're calling it Roberta...That's when we're having the big turkey dinner. Not sure about dinner tonight, Hubby cooked up a lovely cheese & onion omelette for us for brunch and none of us are particularly hungry again just yet.
Honestly, and not only because it's Christmas, this has been the best day I've ever had. The true and deep love, hope and faith flowing in this house today has been almost overwhelming. Just like the song says, we're celebrating being home.
Had a couple of Merry Christmas phone calls with my sister and dad and Big R. Twas a perfect day.

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