Festivity recap

(This is subtitled: what was wrong with Beth's ghetto eye and varied maladies).... WARNING: this is a looooonnnnngggg post :)

Christmas morning was eventful - yes, that's right, eventful. Not the typical relaxed, let everyone lay back and just go with the flow morning. Although, we did manage to go with the flow pretty well. Considering there was an eye swollen shut, broken glass, deep lacerations and exploding glass pans....oh, and that was all me. None of the other Smith family members (I'll gladly take that all since they all remained healthy and blood-letting free).

Hudson woke at 6:45 and we managed to keep him occupied in our bedroom until Anna woke up at 8. Hudson is addicted to Muppet's Christmas Carol and thoroughly enjoyed some cuddle time with Daddy and Mommy in bed while watching his movie....this is one of our faves too, so it worked well for all of us to start the morning like this. During this time I popped our breakfast into the oven to cook - the day before I had whipped up our traditional sticky buns and egg/sausage/green chile yumminess. Anna awoke and everyone was allowed to come out to the tree. In our house, Santa brings unwrapped presents that satisfy everyone's excitement until after breakfast. They get a toy and a book from - Hudson was excited about his Thomas Track for his metal Thomas Trains (they're kinda like GeoTrax, but they are for Take-Along Thomas Trains) and a Merry Christmas, Curious George book with George himself. Anna got a play vacuum, a dr. kit and Katy Duck Dances. (Ok, so Santa brought 2 toys for Anna, but when Santa came, he realized there were three things for Hudson, so he had to make it even!) They both loved the vacuum cleaner -and still do. I'm thinking ahead to days when they can really push the vacuum for me! Side note: we do have one of those Dirt Devil Kurv things, and may I say that they are quite an excellent investment. Hudson cleans up the crumbs from his own messes and cleans the floor after lunch and dinner under the table! All mommies - get one of these!

While the kids and Chris played, I began the berry washing and preparation. I had Chris come in and help me while I pulled the sticky buns out of the piping hot oven. I flipped them onto a serving tray and just as we were about to scrape the gooey goodness from the pan, I set it onto the sink. The moment I placed the pan on the sink, it exploded. Not cracked, shattered - it exploded. Think mini glass bomb in our kitchen. One of the shards went directly into my foot - down to the bone, but luckily only about 3/4 of an inch wide. Chris was untouched, mainly attributed to his big ugly man socks that he wears to bed when it is cold out (this is a whole other post). I started bleeding pretty heavily and my husband did his best to follow my directions as to what to do - since the kids came running at the sound. He managed to patrol them, help inspect and bandage my blood and clean the glass from the floor....after this, we all sat down to a lovely Christmas breakfast - with Mommy's foot in the air to stop the bleeding and my swollen shut eye.

(Skipping ahead a moment here: I ended up having a CT Scan on Friday afternoon to see why my eye wasn't healing or getting any better - I was still having severe pressure and migraines as of Friday, so I saw the Dr. again. The results came back negative - for what I'm not sure - but that was good news. It is now Thursday, and I wore my contacts again for the first time yesterday - that was a beautiful thing - my vision clarity was so much better. And, my eye has healed, all antibiotics are completed and I haven't had any headaches since Tuesday. Praise the Lord for good doctors who helped figure out what was going on.)

We then had fun opening our family gifts - still clad in our jammies. I love this age of my kids - I think that every Christmas, but they were really fun this year. Anna liked opening presents, and they both would open a gift and play with it. Hudson is really fond of his Lincoln Logs and his Daddy Guitar (complete with gig bag, strap, extra strings and picks - thanks EBAY!). Anna really likes her Leap Frog Alphabet singer, new books and her Melissa and Doug princess puzzle. The teacher in me, and the English major in my lovely hubby can't but help get our kids books for all occasions. Plus, our kids love to read!

Later in the day we ventured over to Grandmom's for dinner with Uncle Bryan and her. She, being the consummate Southern woman hostess, prepared enough dinner for 25 people...and, there were 4 adults and 2 kids. We ate til we were stuffed and then the adults opened our presents to one another after the kids were asleep in their beds. We've really enjoyed the past few days. A relaxed pace with lots of family time. We were even able to get to journey to Chris' side of the family and have the kids revel in some Mom-Mom and Poppy time...and Caleb, Naomi, Ruby, Uncle Jim, Aunt Jenny, Aunt Steph, Grammy May, and Grandmom Smith time.

My son and husband are about to give me a dueling guitars concert, so this lengthy post must end - that, and I am sure you are tired of reading and are probably skimming by now. Either way, Thanks Christmas, and Happy New Year!