Like a kid on Christmas

Happy Boxing Day, everyone!

I'm always a little sad and a little tired post-Christmas, but it was a lovely holiday. I really enjoy this two-year-old tradition of having the Smelmooo family to our house on Christmas Eve and spending Christmas Day at my brother's. I think the Smelmooo and I are a good team when we get ready to have guests (we were so organized this year that we had time to relax and watch Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas before everyone arrived), and I like the hustle-and-bustle followed by the collapse-into-the-couch-afer-everyone's-gone-and-the-dishes-are-washed.

Christmas morning, the Smelmooo and I opened our gifts (as well as Tucker's) in our jammies, and then I made omelets while the Smelmooo tried out his new Atari Flashback (my first thought was that giving such a gift was like giving a little kid a drumset -- so much joy, but so much noise -- and then I started playing Maze Craze and Pitfall and such, and got completely hooked, even though I have clearly lost all skill and prowess). Then we watched The Year Without a Santa Claus before I put on my new "I [HEART] Tucker" t-shirt (thanks, Tucker! It was my second-favorite gift!) and we headed off to my brother's.

We cut back this year on gifts for the kids, but it was still joyfully hectic, with gifts and wrapping paper and kids squealing everywhere, and the grown-ups acting like five-year-olds during our grab-bag gift-stealing exchanges (we did pretty well in the Dollar Store exchange, less so in the $25 category, largely because I could not bring myself to steal from either my mother or my sister-in-law's mother, who had the gifts I most wanted, so I ended the game by unwrapping a massager, which made me feel incredibly dirty).

And then the Smelmooo and I came home and played Atari and Sorry! and just hung out, because we had nothing to clean or wrap or prepare or anything, just our little two-person-one-dog family at home together. Life doesn't get much better.