And So This Is Christmas

Well Christmas this year was not too bad. There was a bit of mad rushing around for us during both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But other than that everything else for ok.

Christmas Eve:
This was one of the most rushed Christmas Eve I've ever had. And the weather was far from helpful. Having last minute wrapping and a bunch of things to carry didn't help either. So got my bro to come pick me up along with the gifts and Christmas tree*. Picked up the dinner along the way, spent close to 1 hour waiting for him to get a last minute gift, and arrived at my parent's close to 7pm. (I was suppose to arrive at around 1pm for lunch!) That's not the end. I wanted to decorate up the place to create a more Christmassy mood. So was rushing to put up the deco on the walls and also the tree. We were suppose to be at his sister's at 7pm. So when my bros & family started arriving everyone chipped in to do something: the dinner needed re-heating (unexpected), the walls were decorated (put I found out later that sticky tape won't stick on the walls 'coz of the finish), and the tree was dressed up by the kids and my mom. We then rushed over to his sister's close to 8pm, stayed there till about 9.30pm and then rushed back over to my parent's just in time to give out the gifts. We stayed till close to 1am, got home around 1.30am and finally went to bed at about 3am.

What a night!

*Since we have not celebrated Christmas at my parent's for many years, they didn't have a tree anymore. What would Christmas deco be without a tree. So I took it upon myself to make one from scratch for them. Took me 2 1/2 days to complete. Anyhoo, here are some pix of the tree from beginning to end result. But the final look wasn't really how I had planned it though. There were supposed to be lights and more frills... oh well.

Materials used: Compressed foam, aluminum foil, double sided tape, pva glue and glitter dust.

Christmas Day:
For the first time in many years, we attend church service on Christmas morning. Somehow it just felt right that we should be worshipping God on that morning. Although the service wasn't what we were both used to, the important thing was our purpose for being there.

We were slightly late for lunch at the Wee's since the service ended late and we had to go home to change as well as pick up the gifts. We spent the entire day there just lazing around, playing silly games and singing Christmas carols. We brought the dog over and it was rather amusing to see the small fart terrorizing the much bigger dog of the house. But after awhile the barking just got a little too much to bear and we had to keep them apart.

Gifts - from each other:
I got the hubby a new HD wallet that he's been eyeing and the Spiderman 1 DVD Collector's Edition that I ordered in specially from the US. He got me got 2 HD polos, 1 HD ladies t-shirt and a pretty M&S dress that I wanted.

Gifts - from others:
He got a box of Hawaiian Host, 3 boxes of Chinese herbs for his bad back, a miniature cruiser (bike) made from copper, $20, a few boxes of coffee and tea, and 2 ball candles.

I got a good dive bag, a book about Japanese cuisine with recipes, a miniature old-fashioned printing press made from copper, $20, facial scrub and mask, a snowman glass plate, and a Room & Linen spray.

We both got 2 oval plates and a set of instrumental inspirational Christian CDs.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas this year.