Ooh, if I thought the 6am wake-up was bad yesterday, today’s 5am wake-up was even worse. I somehow rolled out of bed without once hitting the snooze, shuffled up the stairs and took a shower, tried to give the kittens enough attention (because mornings are Snuggle Time, according to Rupert) so that they would leave Richard alone, and then headed off to Davis to pick up my older sister. And I did this all without the benefit of even a single drop of coffee.

Luckily after picking up my sister, the next stop was the bagel store, where I also got the largest cup of coffee they could give me. Mmm, caffeine. And then, fortified with coffee and bagels, we headed off to Vacaville to meet my mom and our younger sister at the outlet stores, just in time for the doors to open and the post-Christmas shopping to begin.

I knew I didn’t need much this year, since we’ve somehow acquired several never-ending rolls of wrapping paper, but I did need to pick up a few additional boxes of cards, and while I was at the first store, I also found some great things for stocking stuffers for next year, and could not resist adding a cute new sweater to the cart, just for me, since it was such a great price. After that, it was off to the fabric store, although by the time we got there, there wasn’t much in the way of Christmas stuff left, so we instead wandered around looking at fleece, and helped my older sister pick out just the right patterns for her to make Snuggies for a few additional people.

I suspect at some point, when we were all much younger, we probably could keep up this shopping thing for longer, but these days, usually after the second store we’re all tired and more than ready to trudge to the nearest coffee shop and try to suck down enough caffeine to keep us awake for the rest of the day. So after a quick stop into a nearby craft store, we decided to call it quits.

A few phone calls to the men, who’d been left behind with the kids, and then we were all on our way up to Sacramento to meet for lunch. After that, it was off to our house, so that those who hadn’t yet met the kittens could meet them, and everyone else could see how much they’d grown. Rupert does not know the meaning of the word ‘fear’, so he was perfectly happy to play with anyone and everyone, but Ingrid has always been a little shyer than her brother, so we compromised by allowing her to stay downstairs in the guest room where she was obviously happy, and having people come down to play with her in twos and threes so she wasn’t overwhelmed.

My dad dozed off on the sofa, but the rest of us settled into a rousing game of Curses, since Richard and I figured that was something all ages could enjoy. And it turned out to be a rousing success, since by the end most of us were laughing so hard it was all we could do to keep from crying (or worse), and the kids sure seemed to have a blast as well. The only problem with the game (as we’ve run into in the past) is that it has a tendency to go on a lot longer than people really want it to, so the remaining four people called it a draw.

I whipped up a triple batch of pizza dough and set that to rise on the counter and my dad and Richard went to the grocery store to pick up cheese and sauce and drinks, and then once the dough was ready, we cut it up and had everyone make their very own pizza (a technique which cleverly bypasses the inevitable problem of feeding pizza to a large crowd – trying to figure out what people want on their pizza). Luckily one of the things I picked up this morning was several packages of paper plates, since we actually don’t own enough real plates for my entire family, so the only dishes left from dinner were the pizza pans and the silverware, all of which my brother-in-law very nicely washed for us. There was ice cream for dessert and lots of people more than willing to play with all the cats who were being social, but eventually it was getting late and everyone headed home, leaving behind an extremely worn out little kitten (Rupert), a pair of equally worn out humans, some leftover cheese, and the remnants of a container of peppermint stick ice cream. Phew.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.