Christmas Lunch

What's the best way to spend a rainy Christmas day?  In pj's, of course!  I was too tired and it was too rainy to dress up so the kids wore their Christmas pj's to Neena and Stephen's house and I wore a very comfy and very warm sweat suit.  If the food looks the same as what we ate at Thanksgiving that's because Neena made the exact same thing for Christmas.  Why change it up?   What's really sad is that we didn't touch the desserts.

My mother (aka Neena) has always been a clean freak (my whole entire life!) but it seems like this disorder is getting worse.  When I dropped off gifts the other day, she didn't have one present under her tiny tree but I knew she had already bought all of them so, of course, I had to ask about them.  She said they are in the closet because the cat would eat the bows and it would have been too much clutter.  What?!?!  Who keeps Christmas gifts in the closet until it's time to pass them out???  Only my mother!  She's never done this before and she's always had cats.  What is going on?  Am I the only person that thinks this is strange?  I'm shocked she left the presents I brought over under the tree.  I guess she didn't care if the cat ate my bows.  Anyway, Neena and Wendy pulled presents out of the closet and passed them out.

It's more fun watching the kids unwrap their presents so Beck, Kinsey and Wendy opened their gifts first.   

Kinsey is just like me...she loves clothes!!!  She had to put on the beautiful dress from Neena and Stephen.

Stephen helped open the bag that had a giant Minnie Mouse in it for Kinsey.

Wendy loves Justin Bieber so I got her a Justin Bieber poster and blanket and our Aunt Vickie got her the Justin Bieber perfume.  Brent helped me find a couple of video games that she wanted and she is super happy about getting those.

The last trip Mom and Stephen made to Costa Rica was to sell their house and they also picked up a Christmas gift for Brent and this is the all-time perfect gift for him.  I'm so shocked she didn't tell me about it.  A machete with a hand-made leather sheath which is awesome looking.  Can you tell he loves it?

There is one gift that I spent many, many hours making for Mom and Stephen and that is a customized calendar.  It has a picture of almost everybody in our family on their birthday along with pictures of the kids for each holiday and each month.  And, the pictures I used for each month were taken on that month of the previous year.  For example, when she looks at February, it will include pictures that I took in February 2012.  It was a lot of fun to make because I got to look at older pictures of the kids and realized how much they have changed.

The other present that I couldn't wait for them to open is the giant woven throw that has pictures of the kids taken at Easter, at the beach and after the kids saw the first Santa in Allen during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Now, it's time to play with our toys!

Thank you Neena and Stephen for lunch and all of our gifts!  Merry Christmas!!!