...a very HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!
It has come and gone again so quickly. But it always time well spent and lots of memories to store away for future rememberance. Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts, goodies, cards, letters and photos.
As is our family's tradition, we spend Christmas Eve with Brian's family and then Christmas with mine.
Christmas Eve started at 5.00pm. We had our Mexican Fiesta-handmade tamales, steak soft tacos, salsa, chips, 7-layer bean dip, guacamole, and sodie pop! Grandpa Mike tried a new approach to telling the Nativity Story by playing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "Joy to the World" DVD, but we barely made it thru Christ's birth in Bethlehem and then Grandma Mad put the kabosh on the story----stating the kids had lost interest! We then had present exchanges and then the annual adult exchange. This year, not much was made about this exchange as is done in the past. Usually, we have months of debate on the "theme" of the exchange. This year, it was unusually quiet. We each brought a $20 gift. Brian brought a silicone muffin tin and cookie sheet; I brought a $15 ITune gift certificate and Planters peanuts. The hot item in the group was the "Planet Earth" DVD box set. Neil ended up walking away with it. By 9.00pm we had all worn out our welcome and headed home.
Christmas morning didn't come too early at our home. The kids slept in until 8.30am, giving Brian and I a good 5 hours sleep. Jake was thrilled about getting the Calvin and Hobbes complete set. It contains every C and H comic strip in 3-volumes that probably weighs about 100 pounds. Liv loved the pink digital camera she got. Santa took notice with her interest in snapping pics this past year. Hopefully, like cooking, she'll really get into it and take over for me. Ian got a plethera of Transformers. Though there was some temptation for Santa to continue with Ian's Thomas the train obsession; he thought better of it and thought to introduce Ian to something new to obsess on. And Maggie, because the vaccum and I are tired of Polly Pockets, Santa brought her Fisher-Price's snap n' style dolls. Overall, I think the day was a success.
Later Christmas day, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Garfield's home for festivities with everyone. We had dinner at 4.00pm (well, most of us had dinner at the scheduled time!) and then had a surprise visit from aunt Ada Lynne and the Dalley family. Then the rest of the night was spent with gift exchanges. First, the cousins each gave a present to one another and then we had the adult gift exchange. This year, Bev proposed a new way to do it. It was very successful and fun, trying to guess who wanted: "Giada de Laurentis' Italian Cookbook" (Brian), "Groundation" CD (Seth), "Sweetland: A Love Story" DVD (JoJo), "Transformers" DVD (Jeff), "Wicked" soundtrack (me), "Yo Yo Ma's Appasionato" (Kim), "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer (Bevany), "Mountaineering: Life on the Hills" (Mike), "Amazing Grace" DVD (Vance), a Heather Nova CD (Sarah), "Fountainhead" book on tape (Kirk), a $20 gift certificate (Audrey), or "Simpsons: The Movie" DVD (Erik). And most of all, who has a secret liking for "Saturday's Warrior" DVD with karaoke??? It is a mystery.
So, all in all, it was a great holiday season.
Until next year...
2 comments:
Very impressive posting the day after Christmas. Such cute pictures of the kids. I'm glad you guys liked the game/exchange. It turned out better than I thought. Maybe we can have a Saturday's Warrior kareoke party sometime...I know Brian snuck the dvd home for himself!
Hey Erinne! It was a fun night. I had to recuperate the following day. Everyone was so generous. I'm with Bevany....we need to do the kareoke. Perhaps on New Year's Eve. Love the pic of Brian and Maggie with the camera.
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