Made it through the day

What a holiday this has been!  Karina came down with some little bug yesterday and was sick all day.  We weren't able to go to the Christmas Eve service, but I was hoping she'd feel better today.  She was up and kept me up half the night feeling bad, but then seemed to perk up this morning when Bill mentioned blueberry muffins.  She was able to look at, open, and play with about half of what Santa left her--two princess dolls (Barbie size), some clothes, a marble run, a car, and a few other things, but by 10am she was winding down.  Coughing and crying and afraid she would throw up.  At 1130 my dad and his wife stopped by, and she promptly fell asleep in my lap, and slept through their entire visit.  Bummer.  But, when they were leaving she woke up and after that seemed to have a second wind.  I canceled going to my mom's today, so they brought dinner to us around 4, as well as a couple of gifts for each of us.  We will finish Christmas with them on Wednesday.  I have postponed family birthday plans for Karina until Saturday (instead of tomorrow) so she can have a quiet day, because Tuesday we're supposed to go up to Richmond to see the extended family.  I'm hoping we'll make it to that.  It has been a crazy day.  By about 330, I was feeling so bummed out because we hadn't even made a dent in the presents, and the let-down of Christmas not going the way it traditionally has was getting to me.  But then I ate the food Nana brought and felt much better after that and opening some stuff with my family.  Karina seemed more into it, too, which was great. 

She still hasn't opened everything.  We probably got her too much, but this was her last year being the only one; next year the gifts will be split between her and her sister, so I justify it that way.  I did get a few nice things; a Nook, which I got early and have been enjoying, some new cooking pots, and an awesome lap desk to use in bed when I'm doing my night time email and such.  I'm using it now.  It's awesome--and it's real wood so it smells good, too!

Karina got a marble run, some princess dolls, some Cars figures, a huge car garage that she really likes a lot, and quite a few other things.  She was excited that Santa came and ate his cookies and milk.  She also got a purple tutu/pettiskirt thing from Santa that she wore all day.  That was pretty cute. 

We're going to do more Christmas tomorrow.  She hasn't even touched her stocking, plus she has a stack of presents under the tree still, some from us, some from other people. 

I gave Bill a purple stuffed turtle.  He had mentioned once that it was the special stuffed animal he'd had as a kid, but of course it was thrown out.  His parents were weird about throwing things out when they moved.  I gave it to him and he was really surprised that I had remembered him mentioning that, but frustrated that he couldn't remember what its name had been.  Then he got all teary eyed during the movie Cars, reminiscing about riding his bike cross country in 1976 with his grandfather during Bikecentennial, and thinking of his mom.  (Karina got Cars for Christmas)

David got a fake beard, some glasses, and some movies.  Mom gave me a border punch system I've been wanting and Nana gave me a yard stake for hanging flags on.  I'm so excited.  Our yard may be overgrown, but by golly, it's going to have a pretty flag out in it! 

Aside from Karina being sick and missing out on a lot of things, it was still a good day.  Karina's feeling better and I still got to see my mom and my dad.  David spent most of the day hanging out with us, too, which was really great.  He'll probably be moving out in the next few months now that he's employed, so I'm happy to have him around while he can still be.  Plus he was really helpful with putting together Karina's garage. 

I hope that whatever you all did today that you were able to spend some time with family and friends.  That was really the best part of the day.