All good things...

...must come to an end. And so it is with Christmas Break. 

I'll head back to school on Monday. Although I love my job, it has been nice to have a couple of weeks off. This got me to thinking, it's been a pretty great "vacation." So, here's my Christmas Break Top Ten List:

10. Finally procuring a Chris Chelios, Detroit Redwings jersey for Alex on e-bay. Do you know how hard it is to find those things for less than $150? Do you know it's the only thing Alex told me he wanted for Christmas and I didn't have a back-up plan if I couldn't find one?

9. Hosting Eli's class pet, Roxie The Guinea Pig, for the holidays. She's a squeaky critter, and when his older brothers went around the house squeaking and claiming to communicate with her, Eli was not happy. "They're just jealous," he claimed.

8. Watching Ryan and his "mini-me" (cousin Payt) hanging out together. Walking the same way. Playing the same way. Using the same facial expressions. Scary.

7. Seeing the boys finally exercise some self-control when it comes to spending the Christmas cash (or giftcards, as the case may be). Instead of blowing it on all sorts of little things that fall by the wayside 3 days later, they waited until they could get what they've been asking for all year and bought it for themselves. See, they do listen to me every now and then.

6. Eli ordering a Nintendo DS online (see number 7). He got up and opened the front door about 12 minutes later. I asked what he was doing, and he said he was checking to see if his DS had been delivered yet. Obviously, he's not very familiar with the inner workings of online purchasing, nor with the United States Postal Service.

5. Quiet nights snuggled up on the couch with my hubby, watching movies. And not having to get up early the next morning.

4. The annual Christmas Eve chili dinner with my parents, siblings, and their families. Just like old times. Except we didn't watch "The Golden Child" this time, as was customary for us growing up. Sure, some families watch classics such as "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street" (is that the right address?). Not us. Christmas Eve for us meant chuckling along with Eddie Murphy. Which is probably why I quote so many useless lines from the movie to this day.

3. The Christmas Day drive from Blanchard to Ponca City, OK, with my newly-acquired "30 #1 Country Hits of the 80s" 3 disc set blaring. Much to Alex's dismay. Nothing picks you up on a boring drive quite like The Gatlin Brothers and "All the Gold in California," right?

2. Eli's obsession with the pocket knife Robb gave him for Christmas. He's been looking for things to cut ever since he opened that thing. But the kicker was when he told us he couldn't wait to get back home from our Christmas trip so he could whittle. That's right, whittle. Eli is a 63-year-old man stuck in a 7-year-old body. Complete with cowboy boots and pants that are 3 inches too short.

1. Our 6-hour New Year's Eve Family Rock Band marathon and the boys cheering like crazies when they unlocked "Tom Sawyer." Forget Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears. These boys were raised on Rush, Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, Van Halen, and yes, even a little Gatlin Brothers every now and then for a well-rounded musical experience.