Elphaba in My World

Okay, so now that I've given away my secret to a relaxed Christmas (hint: go to nursing school & have your spouse go to school while working full-time, raise 27 children & Watson, & pretend to keep your sanity, because it'll leave you too exhausted to go crazy in every Christmas tradition department), I simply must share my Christmas gifts. 

My children are adorable. I love how excited Ginger Girl gets waiting for me to open the gift she got for me. She always begs me to open it the day she wraps it & it's torture for her to wait until Christmas Eve. I love seeing what the children think I would love to have or am missing from my life. 

Big D gave me a pencil & a hand turkey that was on our fridge at Thanksgiving. His answer to my "uh, thanks, bud": "You gave me used garlic bread crust." 

Oh yeah. Our first Christmas together, Jimmy Kimmel was doing his Christmas challenge to parents to wrap up odd gifts & tell the kids that's all they got. Big D's gift was the crust end of garlic bread from our dinner the night before, in the to-go box. 5 years ago. Dude holds a grudge. (P.S. we did give the kids real gifts after the joke gifts; we're not so mean that that's all he got.)

Blondie gave me a Mother/Daughter necklace, where we each wear half of it. It's simply gorgeous, but alas it got delayed in shipping so I don't have it yet. She gave me a note & showed me a picture of it on her phone. It's so sweet that she wants to wear matching necklaces with me. 

Ginger Girl gave me a coffee mug, a notebook for next quarter's clinicals, & an unmentionable that I've been wanting. 

My coffee mug.

Inside coffee mug.
So cool.

Amazing Grace gave me an espresso scented candle. Yum!

From all of the kids, I got a picture frame. I was excited thinking about the family picture I would take, blow up to almost life size, & put in it. Moments later I found out that is not what it was meant for. 

Hubby gave me his gift, which he then matted & put in the frame...

Signed by the cast of the 2nd show we went to. 

I have Elphaba's signature on my wall!! Do you know how awesome this is?? 

When I was in Elphaba's world, I was giddy. I was over the moon excited. I thought it was the best thing ever to be in her dressing room & get pictures of the Wicked casts' signatures from every show held there. Little did I know that after our tour, hubby bought one of the posters hanging on the wall. One of the very posters that I was drooling over. Sneaky, sneaky boy, he is. 

When I opened the gift that held a signed playbill & then saw the signed poster, I was speechless. I actually had no words. A rare occurance indeed. 

Playbill.

This thing is huge!

I've always known that if I had to be evacuated from my house in an emergency, I would grab children & pets, scrapbooks & photo albums, & the Big Book of Important Papers & Information. The obviously important things, right?

My framed Wicked poster is now added to that list, though obviously not more important than any of the other Must Grab Items.

Thinking about it, how important is it really for me to grab all those things? I mean, all my children are old enough to be accountable for themselves. If they don't make it to the vehicle to leave in an emergency, is it really my fault?  One warning should be enough & if they don't listen...well, life is full of natural consequences.

And with our pictures backed-up on Google Cloud, those are more easily replaced than in former years. So not grabbing those just means I have to reprint pictures & remake scrapbooks, but sacrifice happens in emergencies. It's expected in emergencies.

Marriage & birth certificates, social security cards, & information necessary to live isn't that difficult to replace, right?

If I walk out to the vehicle carrying only my Wicked poster & my comfy blanket, trailing a line of cats, no one will judge me. Right?