At the End of the Day...

We did it. We survived Christmas. And what a wonderful day it was! First of all, the Zaz and the Pop are here. And I think you all know how happy that makes me. I have spent most of their time here trying to convince them to move into my basement, but so far it hasn't worked. Whatever. I WILL eventually wear them down. But, that is beside the point. The point right now is that they are here, and I love it.

Mario came into my room at 3:30 this morning asking if it was time to open presents yet. Ummm, NO! He was too excited to sleep, so he crawled into bed with Bowser and I, waking us every 45 minutes just to be sure that we didn't actually miss the present-opening spectacular that awaited us downstairs. I said we had to sleep till 7 before we could go down. At 6:45, he practically cried and said, "I can't take the waiting anymore!!!!" And by that time, we could here Luigi and Peach stirring, so out of the bed we hopped to see if Santa had indeed visited.

And oh, did he visit!!!! When the Goombas made their way down the steps, they were rendered speechless by the sight before them. Peach had an Ultimate Dream Castle for her princesses, fully assembled and ready to go. Luigi had a Cars 2 racetrack, complete with an Eiffel Tower, laser shooting cameras and a tumbling bridge. Also, fully assembled. And now, allow me to make a small sidenote about assembling toys...

Ummm, hello, toymakers. Do you HATE parents???? Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to put together a 4'x3' castle that is packed into a 12-square-ince box? You must not have children of your own, or you are wealthy enough to employ your own "elves" for the holiday season, because obviously, you have never had to put together your own creations. Four small black and white line drawings in the instructions is not much help when you are trying to put together a 4,246,904 piece castle. I'm just sayin'....

Mario spied his new 3DS within 4.2 milliseconds of hitting the bottom step, and I haven't seen his eyeballs since. They have been fully fixed on the 3-D screen for the past 13 1/2 hours. But, a true Christmas miracle occurred and my darling pre-tween, with an attitude the size of Texas actually hugged us all and said "Thank you," for his gifts, without being asked. That was gift enough for this mama.

After the Santa gifts, there was still a pile of presents the size of Mount Washmore to tackle. I thought we would get a good 45 minutes of present-opening out of it. Instead, we got about 45 seconds. It was like a feeding frenzy at the zoo in the lions' den. Don't dare get to close or you might lose an appendage.

While the Goombas played with their new things, the grown-ups feasted on mimosas, eggs Benedict, cinnamon rolls, and potato chips. (Don't knock 'til you try it.) Round 2 of packages came at Grandma and Grandpa Bowser's house later. Let me put it this way... A grandma and a grandpa, 5 children, 4 spouses/significant others, and 8 grandchildren makes for an incredibly chaotic free-for-all of wrapping paper, ribbon and tissue paper. But, I did walk away with an incredibly awesome purse and a fantastic cooler for my back patio, so you won't hear any complaints from me.

And now, here we are, at the end of the day. The aftermath of Christmas morning is spread throughout the house. The Goombas are tucked snugly into their beds after a long and exhausting day. The Zaz, the Pop and Bowser are dozing on the couches, watching the football game, waking each other up with the occasional comment. And I am blogging, thinking back, not just on today, but the entire year, and thanking God deep in my heart for all of His blessings... for my parents, my in-laws, my friends, my Goombas and my husband... The greatest gifts this Daisy could ever ask for on Christmas.

Cheers!
~Daisy