I'm dreaming of a...

That's what I did...dream...practically all Christmas. I got a little over-indulgent in the gluten department. I'm not 100% convinced that the "sleep until 10:30am" morning and the "5-hour nap" in the afternoon was a result of the 15 eclairs and cream puffs I had. Because if I were, then that would mean I would never be able to eat them ever again. I think I still had some ill effects from the half of a biscuit I ate at Bojangles, but NOT from the cream puffs. (read: denial)

Christmas Eve was pretty low-key. NOT. The kids were all over the place. The Bouncy balls were the best things ever to keep them active in the house without destroying something. We ate pretty late for each meal so talk about throwing our schedule off. I start to forget whether or not we have fed them. That is bad. very bad. As we speak, The Elder is yelling in the back of the van "I'm Hungry" and I look at the clock and it is 6:30pm! Yikes! They haven't eaten since 11:30 this morning! Well, we are going to stop at the next exit to eat and then I'll finish this post...

OK, we are dedicated Starbucks drinkers... We just went around our butt to find one. That calls for a Venti....

Family tradition usually has us opening gifts at midnight after Christmas Eve dinner. However, The 6yo With The No Tooth and The 8yo With The Bendy Glasses have a track record of not making it past 8pm on normal occasions so The Brother (their father) decided 10pm would be the new midnight. Opening presents was fun this year because The Elder understood that that is what you do on Christmas. However I couldn't get his focus off his 2nd present (racing cars) long enough for him to open the rest of his presents. So we kept them for the next day as rewards.

Because I was off in Dreamland most of Christmas day, The Elder lacked some serious structure. By the end of the day, he was not only hyper, but impulsive and aggressive. I was very frustrated because I knew it could have all been prevented had I been conscious, and also frustrated because I really didn't know what to tell The Cousins who were getting the brunt of it, because I don't think they know about his diagnosis so I didn't want to use it as an excuse. So as "discipline" I made The Elder bounce 10 laps around the ping pong table and he wasn't allowed to open a present that night. (We still have like 5 presents for them each to open!) Have you found yourself in this situtaion? And if so I'd like to hear how you handled it...or wish you had handled it.

Now, according to The Lola, Santa got stuck at the North Pole and wasn't able to deliver the presents on Christmas Eve so we didn't wake up to overflowing stockings Christmas morn. The Hub was disappointed because Santa usually brings us chocolate. Coincidently my parents have been abroad for the last month on a mission trip and was exempt from Christmas shopping beforehand. So Santa and The Lola struck up some plan to have her just take us all shopping instead to make up for both of their lack. So we went to the outlet mall today in Myrtle Beach to find some goodies.

Updated at 11:33pm (computer battery died in the car)
We actually went to Barnes and Nobles first because I wanted to get the book about organizing for the right brainers (I can't remember if I blogged about that or not, but The Brother and I were discussing it) and a much needed Starbucks fix. The Hub dropped me and The Lola off so we didn't have to drag the kids in there and she ran off to the bathroom and said she would catch up with me. In my quest to find this book, I came across the psychology shelf and, out of habit, stopped to browse. Driven to Distraction caught my eye, but I felt like the title was a little negative. Well, then I saw its sequel Delivered from Distraction. Much more positive title, so I picked it up instead. The first chapter is called "Read this if you can't read the whole book." Now THAT'S my kind of book! I scanned the other Adult ADHD topics when my mom came up behind me...

"Did you get your book already."
"Oh, no not yet, I got distracted."

My nonchalant, inadvertently ironic comment made me giggle. I knew right then I was going to buy that book!

Next Stop: Target. There are some wooden trains in the Hot Spot that The Kiddos went wild over. The Elder calls them "The Trains with No Face." I'll post pictures one day. We bought our Christmas New Year's Cards to be delivered sometime after we get The Kiddos Holiday Pictures made. Will probably take advantage of The Hub photographic talents this year and save on some moolah.

Finally we arrived at the Tanger Outlets. I had a goal to find new patent leather dress shoes. I went to every shoe store. Found the perfect pair (on sale too) at Nine West. However they didn't have my size. We got quite a few things for the kids and a few decoration for the house for next year (The Elder really wanted a star for the treetop next year, as opposed to the angel), but I walked away from our "Santa went AWOL" shopping spree with only the book. I looked at The Sister-In-Law and said, "So this is the mommy syndrome...all that shopping and nothing to show for it...I must be growing up."

We did have a nice trip to see my side of the family. It was great to see and spend time with my nephews. It was humbling to see how grown my niece is now that she is a college girl. It was nice to meet my sister's significant other. It was fulfilling to see The AP enjoy The Lola and The Tita's (my aunt) filipino cooking as it reminded her of Brazilian cuisine. I was thankful that The Brother and The Sister-In-Law joined us today, since I usually don't get to tell them good-bye. It was particularly uplifting to be sad to go. Usually within 24 hours I'm ready to haul tail out of dodge, but this year was different. I felt like it was time to go home sooner than I wanted. If I didn't have to work tomorrow, I'd probably would have convinced myself to stay an extra day.

We left about 3 hours later than we planned but still arrived in TN at a decent time. The Kiddos insisted on watching the Blues Clues Holiday DVD THE ENTIRE 8 HOUR DRIVE HOME. I bought them Polar Express (which they have been whining about all week to see) and we had to stop it 20 minutes into the movie because of The Younger's request. (The Elder was asleep. I imagine he would have argued this had he not been.) But even once he woke up, there was no switching movies. It was cute to hear The Younger sing "We just got a letter" and The Elder sing "Spin, Dreidel, Spin." I, personally, ran the juice out my computer catching up on blogs and then ran the juice out of my cell phone playing Spider Solitaire and Sodoku. Whew, it's nice to be home! I've dedicated myself to go back on the gfcr diet, limiting casein to cheese and only once a week and only outside of the home. I figured I'd feel less guilty if I gave myself some leeway. And....no more cream puffs.