Holiday Updates

It's been almost two weeks since I updated, so I am starting to feel overwhelmed at the idea of it.

Let's see. Aunt Trudy made it back in time for the final performance of "A Christmas Carol." Aimée, Craig, and Ethan were all home for Christmas. Michael was up from Florida, and of course Uncle Dave, Uncle Frank, and Aunt Amy were there too. Mom, Jack, and I were in attendance, naturally. Everyone was at Grandma's house. The Ashley's (Ray, Cheryl, and Todd) came on Christmas day to share opening of gifts and the big meal.

And by big meal, I do mean big meal. I think mom made four different types of pie. At least, I know we had peach, pecan, pumpkin, and pudding pies. I spied a fruit/tart type pie in the fridge the next day too. There was turkey (Craig did the carving honors), ham, potato bake (family tradition, practically), sweet potatoes (so very sweet), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes & gravy, homemade whipped cream for the pies, jello salad, cranberries, homemade rolls, scalloped corn, and I think more if that's even possible. So much food!

The boys had a good time opening presents, and I think they liked everything for the most part. It was even more of a blur this year because Jack was tearing through his presents so quickly, and I had the video camera at one point so Mom could open some of her things. I got Buffy Season 3 DVDs, Stephen King's new book, Audioslave CD, some clothes, calendars, photo albums, and some other things. Jack got clothes, books, some airplane toys, many dogs, a flashlight (such a good gift for him, lol), and a few other things. Actually, the big hit was the walkie-talkie set Uncle Frank (I think) got for Michael. He and Jack had a pretty good time going around the house using them. It was very amusing to the adults because Jack almost never let go of the "talk" button, and they would say something to eachother only to walk to the other room where the other person was just to make sure they heard them.

The next day Amy had to work, so we spent the day not doing much waiting for 6pm to roll around. Since everyone was home this year, we were having a big family picture done. A friend of Grandma's is a photographer, so she had agreed to come to her house to take the photos. We rearranged the livingroom furniture a bit, and then managed to get everyone positioned for a solid ten minutes of pictures. Ethan was great about it, as he was determined to get to the big fire truck when we were done. I hope they come out well. The last family photo was done when Michael was a baby. So that would've been Christmas of 1992. The side by side comparison of the two pictures will be interesting for certain. I was a sophomore in high school, and Aimée had just started college at Bradley I believe. She and Craig weren't even engaged.

We headed home straight after the pictures so we could get back to the cats. Thankfully, they hadn't done any damage to the decorations. Decorations which are all gone now. I went ahead and took them all apart and put them away yesterday. Need to fill these days with something. I am still off work while Jack is out of school. I've actually gone into the office twice this week though to finesse that report. Today it was doing more odd things, but not as a result of my changes. It seems like some data has gotten mish-mashed or something.

I guess that's it. Nothing very exciting has been happening. I bought a metal garbage can, even though I think it will look kind of tacky, because the crazy squirrels in my yard has chewed through my Rubbermaid garbage can to get to the garbage. Freaky squirrels, I tell you. We don't even have that much garbage to get to, yet they did this, so instead of replacing it with another plastic one for them to chew up, I just got a metal one.

Tonight is the last night of 2003. I don't usually make resolutions, and I don't think I will start.