"Our last Christmas alone for at least 20 years"

So Bill said this week, rather tragically, that this is our last Christmas alone for at least 20 years. I think he is calculating in his head that he will be over 60 until we have an 'empty nest'. I think by the time Lucas is 12-14 we can 'train' him to sleep in like ol' dad and mom and not wake up until 10ish on Christmas morning which will make it feel more 'normal' to Bill and I. But alas, for at least the next 10 years or so we'll be up with the dawn seeing what Santa put in our stockings. This year Gabby and Nile were with their mom so Bill and I did relish our day all alone.

Growing up I always had Butter Stresuel Sara Lee Coffee Cake on Christmas morning. Bill used to have it too. I realized on the 23rd before falling asleep that we didn't buy one. We were both working on Christmas Eve so there would be no time to get to the store before it closed. I went to bed sad that there would be no Butter Stresuel Coffee Cake for Christmas morning. I think I went beyond being sad and whined a little (go figure). Unbeknownst to me, during the day on Wednesday, Bill snuck out of work to buy one. After we got up at 10 am this morning, I came downstairs all ready to have oatmeal or toast for breakfast and Bill was heating up the oven to make the coffee cake. It was a great Christmas surprise and every bite was a delight.

Without having the kids this year and not doing presents, we went minimalistic with the decorations. We put up Bill's baby tree his mom bought him for college in the kitchen.
My awesome 'made from cornhusks' Christmas tree my brother and sister-in-law bought we probably 10 years ago which has traveled with me for many Christmases in many different places.

Shout out to my Grandma who bought this for me at a Hallmark store a few years ago; though their song can get irritating it always makes me smile.

Yoda got his Santa hat with a sweet Nativity scene at his feet (is that sacrilegious?) My one lone Dickens caroler stands alone hoping some day for a family of her own. Two stockings still lay on the stairs that never got put up.

And the 'granddaddy' of our minimalistic Christmas is our mouse tree. Bill's folks had two Christmas trees; one for regular ornaments and one only for mice. It is unclear who Barb and Len started their mouse ornament collection but it apparently got out of hand enough to necessitate a second tree. Bill's sister has half the ornaments and we have half and enough to fully decorate a good half sized tree.

A close up of the mice

Bill and I get a Christmas ornament every year and this is the one we got this year. Lucas can grow old with it and tell his kids this was the ornament Grandma and Grandpa got the Christmas when Grandma was pregnant with me.

We spent some of our day of blissful relaxation cleaning up a bit. On a trip down the basement stairs, Bill tripped over his pant leg and whacked his head really hard on the low ceiling of the staircase. He got a good scrap and spent most of the rest of the day with a bag of corn on his head icing it. While we were playing some games, he allowed me to take this sweet classic picture of how he rigged the bag of corn on his head with a rag and an ace bandage.

We played two rounds of Ticket to Ride Dice (our new favorite game), 4 games of Hive (two before we realized we were playing it wrong) and 4 games of Catan Dice.

And we had Chinese food with two friends home alone on Christmas. And we fed our friends cat. And we saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button which was really good but could be titled 'Forrest Gump of the New Millennium'.

I know our lives will never be the same after Lucas arrives. And I everyone says it will only get better, but today was pretty well near perfect except for Bill's head injury and that for half the games we played I lost. But otherwise pretty well near perfect.

I was sitting at Christmas Eve service last night thinking about how next year we'll have a baby to hold. Next year we'll have a 5th stocking to hang. Next year there is no way we'll be sleeping in on Christmas morning. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son, but am not wishing away one moment we have alone together until that day comes.