Just so I don't forget by next year

Because this was my first Christmas as a Smug Married, it was also the first Christmas of Juggling Between Families. I think on the whole everything went fine and we had great times with everyone, but as with any pilot program, we now have an idea of things that will need tweaking in the years to come.

So. Valuable Lessons Which Must Be Remembered and Recorded to Inform Future Planning.

#1. Driving back and forth multiple times between P*** and L*** and SLC during snowstorm week = not good. We probably both need deep-tissue massages after all the white-knuckle driving, and I probably need electroshock therapy to deal with the bit where we drove through the barren wasteland of Tremonton at 1:00am Christmas morning in white-out conditions where we could not even see the road for 20 miles and I kept screaming "Slow down slow down slow down my GOSH is that a ravine? Is that a FLIPPING ravine????? WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!" (Come to think of it, GH may need some therapy to get over that bit as well.)

#2. It is fabulous to be a beloved auntie on both sides, and I'm so very glad that my Precii love GH so much, but next year I'll be wearing some form of sports padding. Nephews and nieces are precious, but deadly. Between all of the climbing and flopping and elbows and knees and feet at both houses, I'm pretty sure both GH and I are now sterile.

#3. Flemings Steak House is most excellent and you could cut their filet mignon with a fork. Le sigh. Also my parents are awesome for taking us there.

#4. Even though Christmas is this romantic thing with the lights and the snow and the presents, a week of house-guesting and air-matressing it is not actually conducive to Sexytime. That is all you need know.

#5. Have forgotten how to eat normal meals like a normal person. Only know how to operate on graze/stuff mode. Feel incredibly bloated and icky and yet cannot stop myself when I see treats. I attack like a rabid forest creature.

#6. It's not fun to clog the toilet at your m-in-law's house. Luckily she's cool though and had this INSANE plunger that I must go buy immediately for myself so that I don't have to keep calling the apartment maintenance staff to come deal with my poop. (I did give them Christmas cookies the last time they were over, though. So that's something.)

#7 Handmade and "experience" gifts are the best, I've decided (except for boots, of course). That was the rule for my sibling gift exchange, and it was so much fun to see what people came up with. Spitfire got me a gift certificate for my favorite hair stylist and a jar of our friends' honey. Coolboy made chocolate-covered pretzels for GH and got him a movie gift card. I knitted a cap for Ed and got him a Polaroid print from Etsy. My sister-in-law Valli made pajama pants for Spitfire. For Savvy and Ethan's present, we're going to take them out on a date (probably to the Dinosaur Museum), and we're doing the same for GH's nephew. GH got me several beautiful, lovely things from Etsy. All kinds o' fun.

#8 How pleasant it is to have one's house to one's self again. What is less pleasant is when said house is trashed because you've only been home in the last week long enough to dump off presents from one family and grab a change of clothes before heading to another family.

#9 GH is easy to shop for in that he has a list of books and DVDs he wants (and will probably cry if he doesn't get, Dark Knight), but I tried to include a few surprises, like PB Twix bars and this t-shirt to go in the bag with his Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog DVD.


Awesome, huh?

#10. GH and I could probably have spent less on each other, considering how generous our parents and brothers and sisters were. Will be trimming that budget next year--don't tell him, though. Shhhhhhh.