A FedEx Kind of Christmas

Please let me preface this entry by saying "I love FedEx." No really, "I LOVE FedEx!" They pay my husband a good salary, provide excellent benefits to our whole family, and for 11 months out of the year are a very flexible employer. However, when you are hired at FedEx, they will very honestly tell you that in the month of December, you belong to the company. This December, poor Bryan belonged to FedEx even on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

So with that being said, this is Jillian and I on Christmas Eve. We always spend Christmas Eve with Bryan's family. We go to church and then dinner at the in-laws followed by presents. As we were putting on our church clothes, my sister calls and reports that it is standing-room only at the church. I am almost nine months pregnant with an almost 2 year old. I needed a seat. Without a seat, I made the decision to skip church. I feel really bad writing that down but it makes me tired to think about standing up, chasing Jillian around for an hour without Bryan to help while we are not paying attention to the service. However, don't we look cute in our church clothes???

After trying to kill an hour waiting for church to get out, we then went over to my in-laws for dinner and presents. Bryan finally got off work and got to his parents' house around 8:30. He got there just in time to see Jillian open her presents. She got a very cute outfit from her Grandma with poodles on it and a very handy travel doodle screen (which will not mark on the car because it uses water not ink).

I got one picture of Bryan on Christmas Eve. This is proof that he did make it.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, we spend the night at my parents' house. Our Christmas Eve tradition since I can remember is to receive a new pair of pjs. Jillian screamed and yelled when she got her new pjs and insisted on putting them on immediately.

So Christmas Day arrived and Bryan was off to work at 7:30 a.m. Jillian and I spent the morning with my parents. We helped Grammie cook in the kitchen. We sung Christmas songs with my Dad. Finally, our extended family arrived at noon for Christmas lunch. My Grandma, my aunts, my sister, multiple cousins and their families all came over. I think we had over 25 people.

Bryan finally got off work around 1:00 p.m. He came over, ate lunch, and crashed on the couch. Poor thing! He looks a little pathetic considering he is wearing his uniform on Christmas Day.

Finally, all the extended family left, we woke Bryan up from his nap because it was time to open presents!!!

I don't know if it was because it was the end of the day or Jillian's age or just too much going on in the day but Jillian was NOT interested in opening her gifts. Just plain did not interest her. She looked at the boxes and frowned. So everybody else opened their gifts and she did like to watch.

Finally, Bryan went and got her "big" gift.....a play kitchen. We did get a big reaction over that gift. She played with it for the rest of the night and the next day and so far, she seems to really like it.

That's it. After the presents were opened, it was about 6:00 in the evening and we were all exhausted. We packed up and went home.

Poor Daddy had to be back at work at 6:00 a.m.