Christmas

Andy and I have been running behind this season, we didn't get anything wrapped until Christmas Eve and Andy even went out and did some last minute shopping Christmas Eve.  I let him open his knives which he loves!  I have to say they are wonderful.  I'm a bit intimidated by them and insisted we keep one set of the old ones, but I let him throw out the one set we both hated.  He enjoyed that.  I did cut up an onion with one of the new knives and it was amazing, it was almost like the onion wasn't there.  We may throw out that other set sooner than later.  We packed up all our stuff and all the presents, let the very excited little dog out and headed over to my sister's running a little late.  Lily was so funny!  She started whining relentlessly and pacing in the back seat as soon as we got off the freeway and she could hardly contain herself by the time we turned onto their street!  As soon as we let her out she ran to the door and announced our arrival.  She loves going over there!

I love that our family gets together for Christmas Eve.  We put together a big meal and we all sit down and enjoy it together and eat far too much, it's wonderful! I love how well out family gets along too.  We are a step family that joined together like it was always that way.  After dinner we held a birthday party for Becca, can't believe she's three!  and then the kids and adults not spending the night opened their gifts.  After everyone left and the rug rat was asleep, we cleaned up and my mom, my sister and Andy and I sat down to play games.  It was tons of fun, I haven't played games with my mom in a while, it was great.  While we played my dad listened to music and watched a movie and Kenton put together Santa presents.  After my mom and dad went to bed, Stacie, Andy and I stayed up a while longer and played Boggle.  I love that game and it has been a favorite of mine and my sister's and we have gotten Andy hooked too.  Stacie and I have never fully played by the rules with Boggle and when Andy first started playing it with us, he insisted we play by the rules.  We have finally broken him of that and convinced him that our way is much more fun.  If you want to know details, well you'll just have to play it with us one day.

Andy and I slept on a couch mattress on the floor and decided that that was not a good idea after sitting in folding chairs for as long as we did playing games, neither of us slept well.  Not that we slept long, by 6:00 I was awake and excited hehe.  Stacie and Kenton were awake a short while later and then mom and dad heard us and got up too.  Kenton had to go in and wake up the only actual kid in the house, how funny is that?  Becca grumbled about getting up until daddy told her Santa had been here, then she was excited and we all sat down to watch her play with her new stuff and open all our presents.  It was wonderful.  One of Andy's favorite movies is A Christmas Story, you know the one with the kid that begs for a BB gun and is told he'll shoot his eye out?  On a whim, I bought Andy a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun and he loves it!  I got a new camera and some books and Andy got a Green Lantern hat, although we have to take it back, it's too small.  My husband has a huge noggin! 

After breakfast we packed up and headed over to Andy's parents after a quick stop at our house.  We had to drop Lily off (Andy's parent's dog, Sadie, likes to try to eat her so we don't take her over there) and Andy grabbed his knives as he was in charge of doing brunch.  Poor Mitch is going thru chemo and when we got there he was really upset.  The treatments have caused mouth and throat sores and he can't eat or drink without being in pain.  It's horrible.  I wish I could take it all away.  Between Andy and his brother Mikey, they finally got some meds in him and we was able to do a little better after that.  The boys got brunch put together and we all sat down to eat, it was all really delicious.  We all exchanged and opened gifts after that.  Andy's dad made a brief appearance and then vanished back into his room.  Andy's brother Mikey and his wife and his grandma and her hunney and his son, and of course his parents and brother Mitch and us were all there.  Sometimes after we opened presents, I succumbed and fell asleep in the middle of it all.  Andy snagged my new camera and got a picture the silly man.

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful weekend.

Oh and since I didn't have to work Thursday or Friday after all, we went out Thursday and had a lovely afternoon just the two of us.  We saw the new True Grit, and I must say it was awesome.  If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you do so.