Four Christmases

Christmas week was a busy one! We thought we were smart taking the full week off so there was time to recover from each large meal before the next. But we ended up needing the time off to recover from something else entirely - a stomach bug! Blech!

Let's start with Christmas Eve - Dave and I had a quiet day at home, watching movies with the Christmas trees lit.  We both went way overboard on gifts for each other - making Steve Jobs' estate even larger :) - and we played with our new gadgets while watching "A Christmas Story" 437 times before bed (checking that off my Winter Inspiration list!).  We'll regret the purchases as soon as we get our credit card statements this month...

Christmas Day we went to Dave's parents' house to exchange gifts and hang out.  It was another low-key day.  We started with blueberry danishes and fruit for breakfast, and then went to the den to exchange gifts.  We have a standing $25 rule for each person to lighten the burden of shopping, and we exchange lists so there's no fake reactions when you open vacuum cleaner bags - OH THANKS, I REALLY WANTED SPEED2 ON VHS! :(  We all get little things we've been hoping for, rather than a money-wasting free-for-all - it works for us :)

After presents we sat around watching "A Christmas Story" (again), waiting to get hungry for dinner!  While Ann, Dave's mom, was preparing some steaks and veggies (nobody wants Ann in the kitchen all day working on a ham or turkey), I went outside with Dave's dad to scheme plans for Ann's upcoming birthday.  I thought I was being sneaky, but I found out later she knew exactly what we were up to!  Darnit!

After dinner, Dave and I headed home so I could whip up some North Pole cupcakes for Christmas number three at the Colleluores' house Monday!  Our group of friends tries to get together for holidays if we're all free, so this year it worked out that 3/4's of us were in town.  We went non-traditional (see a theme here?) and had pork loin, mashed potatoes, and homemade applesauce (I didn't screw it up!).  While we were there we set up a photo shoot with their new baby, Agnes Ann!  She's so cute!  Stay tuned for those photos :)

Christmas number four was Tuesday, when we met my high school peeps (Mo, Phil, and Carrie) at Blue Goat for lunch!  We had too much fun, stayed chatting after they closed their lunch shift and kicked us out, and then carried the party up the block to Starbucks.

How is it possible I have no photos of any of these 4 Christmases?  LOSER.

It was a good long weekend, full of family, friends, and food, but here's where the stomach bug kicked in. As soon as we got home from our lunch date, Dave felt exhausted and went to bed.  I went to bed at the normal time and we were both sick for the next 2 days!  I think I pretty much slept through Wednesday and part of Thursday, and then we were pretty lazy until Friday evening.  Then we were pretty much back to our normal selves.