Nanny Christmas

We went to great lengths this season to balance out the gift giving with Nanny and all of the great-grandchildren after some chaos ensued last year. So, at our appointed time on Christmas Day, Mom and Dad and our family all went and had lunch with Nanny and then back to her place for presents. We get all settled in to give Kate her BIG surprise, when oops. It wasn't there. See, I had ordered the present online and shipped it to Mom, who ordered a few things to go with it and would wrap and deliver for Christmas with Nanny. Only, the present was mislabeled, so instead of Kate's American Girl Doll, it was a present for Phylis. Oh, the tears. The agony. I'm not sure who was more disappointed-- Kate, who was really into the present-getting thing this year, or Nanny, who had the idea to give Kate the doll in the first place. Sam took the high road and offered to wait to open his present from Nanny (a very cool Lego set he wanted) when Kate did.

So, Nanny opened her presents, and the kids bucked up enough to get through the afternoon. We gave Nanny an early copy of this year's blog book (minus December) to entertain her through the year. Sam was particularly good about talking to Nanny and answering her questions. We left about 3 to go to the movies, and Molly and Philip were in town in time to go with us. We finished up Christmas day with Chinese food (again, very Christmas Story-esque. Love it.). Kate was concerned for days about being a Chinese dog or rat or whatever she was.

Of all the things back home that I miss, being so close to Nanny is definitely one of the hardest. I enjoyed solving her phone issues, running to the store for her, and helping her around the apartment. I'm planning to try to call even more this year than I had before, and may take my friend up on her offer to Skype with her.

It was another wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed!