Our Christmas, 2010

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  We truly had a wonderful one here in our home. We baked cookies and made dinner in the crockpot on Christmas eve and just kind of relaxed and had fun. Hubby got off work an hour early YAY!  and surprised us with the news that he was off Saturday Sunday and Monday! His boss must be in a really good mood! We watched White Christmas, then had dinner and played card games til our oldest got off work and came over with her fiance. Then we exchanged gifts and Hubby and I opened our gifts from our co-workers as well. Our kids are so good about Christmas and knowing when things are tight.  They truly are grateful and thankful for whatever they get, and this year was no exception.  We were only able to get each kid one gift from us, and they all loved them.

Then early Christmas morning ... and I mean EARLY! the kids got up and snuck out to the tree.  At 3am the dog woke me up to go out (I'd just gotten to bed actually), and I saw them lurking. They saw me and were like HI!!!  lol  It was the two youngest, and they wanted everyone in the house to wake up!  I told them to go back to bed and leave their sisters alone. I'd planned on making a nice breakfast Christmas morning, but everyone finally zonked out and we were able to actually sleep late, which was nice. We'll do the breakfast Sunday morning.  So the kids were all excited about the one gift each that Santa had brought them, and their full stockings. They were even happy about the oranges and apples, since we haven't had fresh fruit in the house in a long time. The tiniest little things in their stockings thrilled them.  It was nice.

Then we got to making dinner. We'd planned a big meal we'd have at "dinner" time which is lunch time here, and then we could just snack on leftovers all day. It worked out exactly as planned.  No one whined they were hungry all day, and we actually still have leftovers. We had everyone's fave turkey and spinach enchiladas (sounds weird, but they are SO GOOD!), a big taco salad, refried beans, home made Mexican rice, lots of cheese and sour cream. After dinner, we had Christmas Crackers which the kids got such a kick out of. Out 14 yr old never got the big end of the cracker at all.  So we finally gave her one of her own haha. They loved the little toys, and we all wore our paper crowns for the evening. Loved it!

At 1pm we watched Doctor Who at the Proms on BBC America.  I'd been looking forward to seeing it for months.  I'd been able to listen to it live when it was performed.  The music is truly brilliant, and seeing and hearing the actual orchestra that performs it for the show's score performing it,.. well it was breathtaking. They had a bit of fun with acting out a skit or two and they showed great scenes from the show on big screens at Royal Albert Hall where it was held too.  Did I mention I'm A HUGE Anglophile? haha 

Then we watched all the Doctor Who Christmas specials from years past, then the two-part season finale from this past season and then finally this year's Christmas Special! The Doctor Who Christmas Special is as much of a tradition at Christmas as turkey is for Thanksgiving. We all gathered around the TV and sat spellbound.  Well, except my 8 old who kept asking incessant questions. Kind of takes away from the experience, but she doesn't get the idea of "I honestly do not know what happens next, sit down and be quiet and watch to find out." hehe.  To be fair,.. it was a pretty out-there storyline! But then they usually always are. Love British sci-fi!

Then we sort of all went off on our own, checking email and texting friends, calling family etc. I'm still not sure if we're going to try to get to my sister's tomorrow or not. It's been snowing all day.  YES we got a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!   and it may be called off for snow anyway.  We'll see. They always get more snow than we do anyway, so the van acting up plus treacherous roads may keep us from going at all.  They were going to try to come get us, but really I think I'd rather just get together later on and have a nice dinner with the whole family and play games or something. It doesn't HAVE to be for Christmas. We need to do more family stuff anyway... well...  they all get together all the time anyway as my brother and sister and their families are all in business together and they all have kids who hang out together...  it's really just my little misfit geeky family... the black sheep of the family haha.  We're too far away and have NOTHING in common with any of them. I'd like to,.. and I was raised in that culture... but being married to a nerdy geeky yankee... well it kind of takes the Southern out of you. But that's ok. I prefer being the best wife I can be to my husband and supporting him and letting him lead the family. I just wish his family were closer.  I love hanging out with them, even if being around them can sometimes make me feel like the relative that had to be kept in the attic.. LOL  Y'all have any "perfect" relatives? That's what my sis-in-law and her family are like, as well as my grand-parents-in-law.  Thankfully my MIL is more like us... We can be black sheep together LOL!

So, now I'm rambling so, time to go!  I'm just going to leave you with some photos from our holiday.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
(don't pay attention to the date stamps, it got reset to that date somehow and I didn't even notice.)

They looked funny, but they taste so good!

That's my knitted nativity set on the shelf my best friend's nan made for me. The baby Jesus is missing :(  That's White Christmas on TV :)

Our new tree that was given to us by Christopher's grandparents. They also gave us all their ornaments.  They're too old to decorate now, as they have limited mobility. :(  But I was proud to add them to our own collection.  I love a full tree.

Rhiannon decorating cookies while Zoe watches

Zoe and the cookies. (Don't look at my icky freezer top. It's rusted from being on the back porch too long. )

Faelyn adding dumplings to the crockpot.

My girls helping with dinner for Christmas eve.

 These are some of the ornaments on the tree. Many are antiques from my family and Christopher's and a lot were made by our girls over the years.

This one has a pic of my hubby as a kid. :)

My daughter Rhiannon bought this one from a Relay for Life fundraiser in memory of her Mamaw (my Mom) whom we lost just before Thanksgiving 2005.

Corina, my oldest, and her fiance Tyler show up in time for presents.

 

 

Rhiannon got to open a Mario Mushroom candy dispenser LOL.  Her real gift was a premium account subscription for Deviant Art. She is an amazing artist, and I'm not just saying it because she's my kid. ;)

Zoe loved these, but soon realized her own guinea pig, Gerald was way cooler and started to actually pay attention to him.  So maybe this was really Gerald's present ;) haha

Yep, he's my geek. (Though I may shave that Grizzly Adams beard in his sleep!) lol

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!