And now I know why I never wanted to leave my house on Christmas. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a good time because I did. I just don’t do crazy hectic very well and I certainly don’t do it well for very long. And it was one long hectic week.

But fun. The recaps:

The Best Moment. When we were leaving my brother in law hugged me and thanked me for coming down with the kids (we’ve not spent Christmas with husbands family since 1987). He (who has no kids) said how much he had forgotten how enjoyable it is to be around kids at Christmas and how much fun he had helping play Santa on Christmas eve and how much he loved the excitement of the kids and Christmas and how it seemed somehow more special.

Well, halleluiah. That’s the entire reason I came out of my ‘never leave home’ mode and dragged us all down to family. It has been clear for sometime that if we wanted to spend the holidays with husband’s family we would have to go to them. And the kids are getting old enough that it won’t be quite this excitement level for too many more years. And husband’s parents are getting older and I thought it would be fun and I just thought it would be the right thing to do and I even braved my mother’s wrath (‘nother story). And he got it. He really got it and even thanked me for it. (My husband didn’t even do that) Gosh I love that man…my sister in law did so well to find him. He even buys me diet coke when I stay at their house. My own husband could take lessons in thoughtfulness from his brother in law.

The Funniest Moment: While walking around Hollywood Blvd. said by the princess to her dad: “Dad, what does S E X spell?” The prince and I were far enough behind that I don’t know if he just answered her or had more to say. But it is about time he got a fun question because usually I get those.

Most frustrating moment: The drive home! Well, that and the initial attempted drive there. The highway had a lot of people up north who wanted to go south and vice versa. And I was one of them. The prince kept moaning “hotel” once every 15 minutes for the entire 6.5 hours home. Luckily there aren’t too many hotels along the way or I might have been tempted.

The Most Chaotic moment (or the moment I wanted to run for cover…conversely it was the prince’s finest moment): Christmas a.m. when 11 people were crammed into the living room of my SIL’s 700 sq. foot house (so imagine the size of the living room). I thought I was going to die and my son was in heaven…hollering back and forth, chaos, noise…

The Moment that Proves I’m an Ungrateful Person: Husband gave me a nice present of a leather jacket and all I could think of was how much it cost so I pretty much don’t say thank you and then disappear to cry because I’m all angry. But this was mostly because I hadn’t slept in 4 days and it really was crazy (see above) that morning. I did apologize the next day.

The Yeah, We Must be on Vacation Because Both Kids are Crying moment: When the prince slams the trunk of husbands car while the princess was still looking in. Oops. She drops everything she is carrying and is screaming at the top of her lungs. He drops everything he is carrying and starts crying too. I grab one kid and husband gets the other and we try to calm them down. Total damage, one goose egg on the princess’ head with a killer headache and one prince who has proved he is compassionate and really doesn’t want anything bad to happen to his sister.

The I’m So Cool moment: When I got to touch my aunt’s amazon parrot, Einstein, who won’t let any one touch him. I didn’t get to actually hold him but I he would put my finger in his mouth and didn’t bite me.

The Why do People Live in LA/Orange County moment: When it took one hour to get into a parking lot at the mall, into Nordstroms to buy one specific thing I knew they had and get back out of the parking lot again. It was the day before Christmas eve, sure. And it was even raining. But come on… how can you live with this?

The Oh, Now I Remember Why People Live Here moment: The Friday after Christmas was the clearest day ever. We drove to Hollywood from out near the airport…the skyline of downtown LA with the mountains in the background was beautiful. Better than beautiful…breathtaking. Oh yeah, three times a year you get this…it probably isn’t worth the other hassles of SoCal but it was sure nice to remember anyway.

The My Kids are So Cool moment: They actually liked listening to my grandma and her stories. They were attentive and asked good questions. And they wanted to hear more. And they were sorry when we had to leave.

The Wow, You Know That? moment: When my other aunt, the seventh grade school teacher, was having a discussion with my son on who should have been ruler of England back in 1066…Harold or William? I only kept wondering if I had ever learned this?

All in all, a really fun time was had by all of us. I’m happy to be home and I’m happy that this was one of the best Christmas season’s I’ve had in years. Despite all the little things that kept happening, I had said it would be better, worked towards that goal and it really was better.

And that is a really pleasant thing.