Thank God It's Over, Ho Ho Ho.

Whew. That was an exhausting Christmas. One almost-four year old, one 19 month old, two tired parents, and one very short round trip via car from Cville to New York and back again (in the blink of an eye.) One broken portable DVD player. Good thing we don't watch any TV/videos at home; they were so wowed by being able to watch Elmo on the way up, they didn't even mind when the damn machine broke one hour into the [ten hour long] trip on the way home. Thank God. They slept a lot. Bless them.

The gift thing was a tad over the top, but nowhere near as extreme as it would have been if I hadn't begged and pleaded for fewer gifts this year. And, thanks to siblings and parents who Ask Before They Foist Gifts On Other People's Children, we successfully dodged Disney Princessification, delayed American Girlification (for a year, at least...) and even succeeded at keeping gifts to a relative minimum.

Lest I sound too virtuous as a parent, fighting off bad influences left and right, let me admit right here that A., my toddler, ate half a plate of Christmas cookies. For dinner. And a few bites of pasta. Hey, you gotta pick your battles, right? She eats well at home, at least. Usually.

And, perhaps more importantly, at least she didn't succeed in getting into the heavily spiked eggnog. Watch out for next year, folks. Don't set your cups down.