And, the letdown...

And, the letdown. . .

Does anyone else feel this huge letdown after Christmas is over? I mean, there is this great, huge, l o n g leadup, and then it's over (snap!), just like that. I think I enjoy the anticipation of it more than the actual day. I love the Christmas season. I do not like seeing my friends stressed, but for me, I just refuse to get that way. Okay, I did for about a day when it was looking like we couldn't get the kids anything, but usually I'm not like that. I just love the spirit of the season, the feeling in the air, the lights, and songs on the radio. Getting cards in the mail, and getting to put my snowman collection out. It's like with the dinner. I cooked on Christmas day from around 8 AM until about 1:30 or 2 PM, when we ate. It takes so long to cook this huge dinner, and we're finished and I'm packing it all away within a half hour of finishing. It's just so... anti-climactic.

So anyway, the party on Wednesday went okay. It actually did not stop raining and we had to leave early due to things getting icy. I did not want to get stuck in a ditch in 30 degree (and dropping) weather, with four kids. There was already ice on the trees and grass as we went through town, and our porch was slushy when we got here. By Thursday morning, oh yeah, there was ice everywhere, with a thin layer of snow on top. Some of it is actually, amazingly, still out there. So, I can officially say that Christmas 2004 was a white one! :-)

I am in the organizing mood today! I cleaned the house up (except for my bedroom, which gets a whole day to itself), and even organized the cabinet in my laundry room. Before the end of the week, I am going to clean out my closet. I am purging - we simply do not have room to keep clothes we don't wear, junk we don't use, things we don't need. So it's all going. If I can sell it, I will. If not, off to Goodwill it goes. I'm going to organize Darrell's tools for him - he can never find a damn thing because he has about, oh, 3,000 places he sets stuff when he's finished. I'm going to try to work out some sort of system for tools he uses a lot, etc. Of course, him putting them back where they go is entirely up to him. But I'll put him a system in place. If he doesn't follow it, I don't want to hear the standard bitching when he can't find (insert tool here). I want to get all of this finished before New Year's Eve. I don't know why exactly, I just want to have everything in order by the new year.

The kids had a wonderful Christmas Day. I wish we had gotten Hunter something else besides a Gameboy, though. Since we got them the GameCube from Santa, he's barely touched his GB. Of course, when we bought the GB, we didn't know we were going to buy a GC for all of them. Oh well, he'll have the GB when he gets tired of MarioKart (that's the only game they have right now), and he can use it in the van on trips and such. Mackenzie loved, loved, loved her Easy Bake Oven. She had to make a little cake as soon as all the present opening was finished. And Shelby got 5 dolls for Christmas. Combined with the ones she already had, she doesn't know which one to put in her stroller first. LOL If I had known so many people would get her dolls, we would have just gotten her more accessories to go with them. For her birthday, I think we'll get her some, maybe a doll carseat, and some diapers. Those are two things that she loves to use of Maggie's. I don't let her use the diapers - too expensive. But everytime I go to put Maggie in her seat, a doll is buckled up in there. Ha!

I must hit the hay now. I just realized it's midnight! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and I hope 2005 holds lots of good things for you. :o)