Christmas Day

Christmas Day is also pretty calm, but usually with a bit more driving. This year my whole family discussed it and decided that we all like having Christmas morning at home to ourselves and that we would get together in the afternoon.

As you can see, Griffin was "thrilled" with Christmas. I just couldn't yell at him when I found him under the tree like this- he's the only cat that doesn't really get into things or try to play with the ornaments- he just likes tight hiding places. And, yes, that is his normal "cattitude" face!

I think Darren was actually pretty thrilled with the new hiking shoes I gave him. He's going to Africa in a couple of weeks and needed a new pair, anyway.

Before we could leave for my brother and Beth's home, Darren had to do an emergency brake job on my car- one of the calipers had completely locked up, so he had to replace it outside, in the cold, on Christmas day.

I loaded my little del Sol down with just about as much as it could possibly hold! It was full of everyone's gifts, some food to help out with Christmas dinner, and extra blankets and pillows since Beth and Jon are renting and a lot of their stuff is in storage until their new house is built.

There was stuff in the trunk, behind the seats, and around my feet in the passenger seat!

Mom and Dad had pretty well loaded down the back of their van, too! This picture was taken after several armloads of stuff had already been moved inside.

We did the gift handing-out a little differently this year- usually gifts are distributed one or two at a time, but this year we piled everyone's gifts up next to their seat ahead of time. It was a lot of fun! I did miss a few openings, though, but we saved the "big" gifts until last so everyone would be sure to see people's reactions to them. :)

Beth seemed pleased to open her copy of the 5th season of Stargate: Atlantis. We've not tried it (yet), but I'm pretty sure that she and I could make a day of sitting on the couch, eating chocolate, watching SG:A, and talking about Joe Flanigan's hair.

J got one of the seasons of Burn Notice (we gave Beth the other).

I bought Mom one of Making Memories' cool desktop organizers. She kept putting new gifts in it as she opened them, and most of them actually fit!

Mom had given Dad a small point-and-shoot camera earlier that day, and he had loads of fun taking pictures with it. He liked it so much that he didn't even bring his DSLR with him!

I found a really cute way to wrap rolls of quarters as candy rolls on MarthaStewart.com and wrapped some up for Dad to put into his new DSLR fund. I hope he gets it soon!

This is one of those gifts that has a funny story attached. Since my brother doesn't have a place to set up his woodworking tools right now, they're all in my parents' basement shop. He'd been going out to their house for several nights in a row to work on a charging station that he said was for Beth's Dad. Actually, it was for our Dad. :) The funny thing? Dad spent a lot of time in the basement helping him with it!

After we opened gifts, it was time to start cooking dinner. My brother is awesome in the kitchen, and he and Beth made a fantastic meal, complete with lamb, ham, and a TON of yummy side dishes!

I didn't know it at the time, but Beth had asked Mom to bring her pretty white dishes for dinner because Beth knew I'd be taking photos. :)

My grandparents even came to eat with us, which was very cool because we haven't seen them on Christmas day for a number of years now. Last year Mom and Dad came to our house, and I can't remember if we saw them the year before or not.

After dinner we spent a lot of time in front of the plasma screen. :) The Yule Log video is something of a tradition for our family. Dad originally got a copy of it on VHS, and then several years later I was able to make a digital recording of it from satellite on my DVR. That's what's on the screen below. Of course, later it got replaced by Mario on the Wii. :)

Mom and I hadn't gone shopping at the day after Christmas sales in a couple of years (I'm sensing a theme, here), so on Saturday morning we got up bright and early and went to Kohls when they opened at 6am and Target at 7. I got quite the haul of stuff from both places, including all the goodies below at Target. I've already got my color scheme picked out for next year, and now I have some pretty new stocking holders and ornament hooks, too. :)

Oh, and, yes, that is more peppermint bark in the photo. I'm obsessed I tell you. OBSESSED!