Okay, so I started planning for Christmas this year in like... the summer. In my head at least. Last Christmas everyone was like, "Ohhh, this is going to be your best Christmas ever because Eden is at the perfect age and blah, blah, blah". And don't get me wrong, it was an incredible Christmas, and Eden was, of course, adorable, but I knew THIS year was going to be even better with Eden at THIS age! So I started planning early. By September, I knew all the presents that I wanted to get Eden, and by Thanksgiving I had them. I took the little black, velvet dress that I wore on my second Christmas to be cleaned, and it hung in Eden's room for months before Christmas waiting for Eden to wear it on HER second Christmas. The beginning of the Christmas season was FANTASTIC - our trip to San Antonio, Eden being an angel in our church's Christmas program, baking Christmas cookies, and little Christmas crafts for Eden to do.
A few weeks before Christmas, I was examining all of Eden's gifts, and I came to the conclusion that they were pretty girlie. Her big items were a vanity table and a bassinet and high chair for her baby doll. So I told Dustin that he needed to get Eden a present from him that wasn't all girlie. He came home from work a few days later and told me that he had decided to get Eden a puppy. Now at first, I was all, "You must be crazy, there's no way in hell we're getting another dog!" We already had four dogs. We had five, but back in April, I lost my Sammy. He was so old, and I was so sad when he finally died, but a few days later, I had to admit that life around here was much easier with only four dogs, and I told myself I would never have five dogs again. But when there's a puppy involved, it doesn't take much to twist my arm. And then once I imagined Eden getting a puppy on Christmas morning, I was sold. So I ended up telling Dustin to go for it. The only problem was that he absolutely positively wanted Eden to have a female yellow lab. We already have two male yellow labs, one that we consider Dustin's and one that we consider mine, so he said Eden needed her own yellow lab too. He started searching the Internet looking for breeders around here. He kept coming home from work telling me about these puppies for this much money and those puppies for that much money. Now I have never bought a dog in my life. Every single dog I've ever had from the time I was little has been a rescue dog - the dogs either wandered up to our house or we took them in after they had been dumped somewhere else. And I've always told myself that that's how I would always do it - I would NEVER buy a dog when there are so many dogs out there that need homes. So I kept begging Dustin to just let us go to the SPCA and adopt a puppy from there. He didn't want to because he was seriously dead set on a female yellow lab, and the SPCA didn't have any. We kept going round and round - him insisting on buying a yellow lab and me insisting on just adopting any puppy that needed a home. We never could come to a solution. So I prayed about it. Two nights after my little prayer, Dustin's mom sent us a text message with a picture of a little yellow lab puppy saying that one of her friends had witnessed somebody throw the poor thing out of their truck into the highway. The friend ran into the road to save the terrified puppy, and Dustin's mom wanted to know if we wanted it. Now Dustin's mom had NO clue that we were even thinking about getting Eden a puppy for Christmas. I quickly wrote back asking if it was male or female, and she said female - just what we wanted! Dustin asked if she appeared to be full-blooded, and both his mom and dad agreed that she did. "We'll take her!" Now how absolutely perfect is that? I looked at Dustin and said, "Well there's your yellow lab", and he said in return, "And there's your rescue dog." God is so good.
So everything seemed to be coming together. Dustin's parents agreed to keep the puppy until Christmas Eve for us, and I had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alllllll planned out - I had traditions that I wanted to do from my childhood, traditions that Dustin and I have done since we got married, and some new traditions that I planned to start with Eden. I could barely sleep on the night of December 23rd because I was so FLIPPING EXCITED about the next two days.
And then.... everything went wrong. Nothing went the way it was supposed to. I had typed out every little thing that I had planned and how it went wrong, but I decided to delete it. Because in the end, it doesn't matter. Because while I was (at first) extremely upset about how nothing seemed to be going my way, Eden was having the time of her life. And when I thought back over the previous two days on Christmas night, I realized that that's exactly how it should be. It's not about me anymore and all the things I want at Christmas. It's about Eden now! (Okay, I guess it's really about Jesus, but you know what I mean!) It's my job now to make sure SHE has the best Christmases ever - not that I do! And she did! She really, really did! I didn't get to do all of the traditions that I wanted to, but it's okay! Because Eden was happy, and that's all I wanted in the first place!
I will write about the funniest thing that went wrong though... I set up all of Eden's presents after she went to bed on Christmas Eve. Her vanity table came with a mirror that needed to be attached to the table top. Dustin had left though to go pick up the puppy, and I'm seriously clueless when it comes to tools, so I decided to just lean the mirror against the wall and figured it could be attached later after we had put it into Eden's room. See:
On Christmas morning, Eden was ecstatic when she walked into the living room and saw everything. Dustin had the camcorder going, and she decided to go check out the vanity table. She sat down on the little stool and pulled out the drawer which caused the mirror to fall over and hit her in the head. She started crying, and I ran over there to comfort her. I'm holding her and trying to calm her down, and I'm so upset, and I look up and Dustin is still videotaping. So I start screaming, "TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF." And he wouldn't do it at first, so I kept yelling, "TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF!" until he finally did. Once Eden stopped crying, I started crying! I was all, "I just can't believe this has happened, everything is messed up and nothing is going the way it's supposed to, and now one of Eden's presents has INJURED her!" When I finally stopped crying, I demanded that Dustin delete the video RIGHT FREAKING NOW. He completely refused and assured me that one day I would find it absolutely hilarious. And by now, I know he's right. I haven't watched it yet, but I know when I do, I'm going to laugh. And I can just imagine us all sitting down and watching that video in twenty years together and cracking up when Eden gets hit in the head and then cracking up again when I start screaming, "TURN IT OFF!"
Once Eden had calmed down, she happily finished opening her presents, and then we brought in the grand finale. We put the puppy in a wrapped box as well so that Eden could take the lid off and be surprised. It was adorable; she was so happy!
Some more pictures from Eden's Christmas Eve and Christmas:
Seriously, so happy. If you notice, she hasn't even opened the box yet. She was THAT excited just about taking the paper off! She's opening her Christmas Eve box from my mom - a tradition for her each year where my mom will send her Christmas jammies, a Christmas movie and movie snacks. This year she got Charlie Brown's Christmas.
We spent Christmas Eve evening at my dad and Susie's house:
Playing with all her new stuff on Christmas morning:
We didn't get to go to church on Christmas Day like I had planned, so Eden never did wear my dress, but we stopped by my grandma and aunt's house to visit and then spent the afternoon and evening with Dustin's parents:
And we swung by Granny and Pops' before heading home:
So yeah... it turns out that Christmas was pretty dang great after all.
As for the puppy?
Her name is Daisy for Daisy Duck and Eden's love of all things Mickey Mouse. And she and Eden are best friends forever.
*****
On New Year's Eve, Dustin and I went to a party while Eden stayed at my dad and Susie's house, but we left early and picked Eden up by 10, and we rang in the New Year just the three of us again. Actually we did it early because I seriously went to bed at 11:30. Man, I'm getting old.
And on New Year's Day, we had friends over for our annual prime rib, black eyed peas and greens. Judging by the amount of black eyed peas and greens that Eden ate, she is going to be very lucky and very wealthy this year.
*****
I'm a summer gal. My body physically hurts when I go outside in really cold weather, and I could never handle living any more north than where I live right now. But occasionally, it is nice when we get really, really cold weather. (As long as it doesn't last too long!) I love being all cozy inside, and whenever it gets below freezing, Dustin sprays the water hoses on everything during the night so that we wake up to beautiful ice covering everything.
This morning was the first time Eden has gotten to experience this, and when we woke up, we put on jackets, hats and boots right over our pajamas and went outside to stomp on frozen grass and eat icicles.
So simple, but it's something that has always made me so happy.
Happy 2014!
When your mother told me about Daisy, I was so flipping excited to read all about it! I'm glad you did and that everything turned out so well!
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