And it was a blast! For the most part anyway…
Christmas Eve was the best. Pizza for dinner (a tradition with us), then my daughter and autistic sister each open one gift. Once they’re off to bed, the rest of us do our Yankee swap thing and then play our version of “Let’s Make a Deal”–my husband as Monty Hall, selects a member of the audience who gets to choose one of the three paper bags he has. One is a “zonk”–usually a ripped pair of undies–the other two are gift cards. From there the fun REALLY begins. With four women and one male in the “audience” we all start scrambling through our purses (and the guy through his pockets–one year he actually brought a paper bag filled with stuff!). Monty says he’ll give one scratch ticket to the first person who can produce a piece of gum–and we start scraping through our stuff looking for a piece of gum! It’s too funny, especially since I’m usually searching while videotaping the whole thing! Not an easy task to do!
Christmas morning went well. My daughter was in her glory when she saw all the gifts. The first thing she said was “WOW!” 
It’s hard to tell what her fave gift was because she’s been playing with EVERYTHING off and on for the past five days.
Christmas night it was time for my husband and I to exchange gifts. I’ll never understand how a man who has been married to me for 12 years and has known me for 15 STILL has NO CLUE what to get me. Over the years some of the gifts I have received from my husband include: a box of tissues (I did have a cold at the time, but c’mon!); dish towels (how romantic!); last year I caught him with the bubble wrap he was going to give me before he was able to wrap it. I told him to just give it to me at that moment. There was a meaning behind it because yes, I do use bubble wrap for stuff I sell on Ebay. However, I DON’T want to get it as a Christmas gift from my HUSBAND! This year just about topped it. We needed a new measuring cup. As I commented about it he told me that “maybe Santa would bring me one”. I was floored. I went off on him and told him to not bother wrapping it, just give it to me. And I also told him to PLEASE not buy me ANYTHING that I would use in the kitchen. Towels, dishes, silverware, a blender, NOTHING FOR THE KITCHEN! I know I upset him but hey, I was upset too. Maybe he doesn’t mind getting duct tape every year but he’s the only one who uses the stuff! A measuring cup in my house is used by EVERYONE ELSE, not just ME!
So to compensate for my being ticked off at him for the cup, I told him if he REALLY wanted to buy me something for the kitchen, he could get me a new rolling pin. I knew he already had because I just know this guy and my rolling pin had broken months before when my daughter was playing with it. So yes, a ROLLING PIN is one of the gifts I received. Oh, but this isn’t just ANY rolling pin. It’s a rolling pin from TARGET with a non-stick surface (which I really actually like). So now when I use my rolling pin, which is about ONCE a year when I make Christmas cut-out sugar cookies, I’ll think of my husband and all he goes through to please me with his “not too much thought put into it” gifts!
bunchesofos