The Great Holiday Recap

I know it's a bit late, but I hope you all had a wonderfully merry Christmas!  We spread out all our traditional holiday activities over the month of December, starting with picking out a Christmas tree!

We all met up at St. Peters to peruse the tree rows before settling on a good one.  The volunteer guy running it didn't really know what he was doing so Dad had to recut the bottom when we got home before sliding it through the window into it's spot in the corner.  A few days later after the branches had a chance to drop a bit, we strung on the lights.  The same five Christmas cds have been loaded in the back room stereo for the last several years, as this is the only time of year we ever use it, but the shuffle option doesn't work very well so we end up listening to the same handful of songs over and over.  Just adds to the scene.

The next event on the Christmastime To Do List was the outside lights.  If you'll recall from last year, Dad and Taylor wrapped the backyard tree in perfectly even loops and this year they were determined to perfect this technique.

And Taylor did a little scale model on one of the front trees as well.  We also happened to be barbecuing that night so we started playing around with angles and the coal chimney to amazing effect.  The pictures don't quite do it the same justice as the magical slow motion videos we took, but here they are.

The following week was Christmas!  I took several days off work as a little gift to myself so I packed up and moved back to Mom and Dad's for a couple days.

On Christmas Eve we celebrated with Dad's side of the family, where we took part in the customary kid's table brown paper after dinner marker fest.  Drawings range from holiday shapes and winter scenes, Christmas song lyrics and pretty lettering, to Taylor's alien face logo and my blind contour drawings of different family members.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast of croissants and coffee, followed by present opening and cleaning up for the big dinner party.  Dad was making crab cakes and shrimp pasta with a whole host of delicious side dishes.  Timing was key, as several items had to be completed early to make room for everything else; look how loaded up the fridge is!

Uncle Gary brought his famous eggnog, along with a few distant family members in from out of town, the food turned out really, really good, and we played our usual party games.  All in all it was a great Christmas filled with joy and low-key family time, which is how it should be.  Happy late Christmas, everyone!

(photos by e.hunt)