You can tell the Amy, David, Justin, and Skylar rev up the later it gets. It’s late and I’m feeling the effect of my cold. I’m getting more post nasal drip and it’s causing me to get a catch in my throat. I’m more tired than I normally am at this time and I have a slight headache. Laura has gone to bed.
Christmas morning was nice. It was just me and my parents. Laura has figured out presents. She didn’t stop to play with her toy. She wanted to quickly move onto the next present. We were able to block that trend by giving an adult a gift. Laura and Sara would each open a gift at the same time. They got several beautiful dresses from Mom. At one point we stopped the unwrapping to put on new dresses and twirl about. Everyone got fun little gadgets from a variety store called Richard’s. I got a bell for Skylar, a fighting robot figure for Wayne, and a music windup box for Dad. I got a fun new Nikon lens. Wayne got a box of Theo truffles. I want to eat some of his chocolates. We ate pannetone toasted for breakfast.
We were all getting antsy so we voted to go out. Laura was a little close to her nap. The ground was wet from a deluge the night before. The kids ran around Atlantic Station while adults photographed.
After nap, my bro’s fam came over. Laura went into fit mode. She was unhappy there were presents being opened that weren’t hers. Laura got twin baby dolls her Aunt Mimi bought. Skylar rounded out her Playmobile zoo collection. Justin got two Lego sets. One is already set up on the dining room table. One was an Indian Jones figure that fell into my jello when he was showing it off at the dinner table. Dad gave Amy et al a nice photo book of Justin and Skylar. I compared it to the book I gave Mom using Publisher from Costco. I think the Mac book is a bit nicer. We compared it to past books I’d made, one a Mac and one from shutterbug.
Dinner was lovely. It echoed Thanksgiving of 2003. Mom embraced the Cooking Light menu that year and she and I have been cooking dishes from that menu since. She made the brussel sprouts with pecans and the brain mold (without the brain mold). We had honey baked ham. Amy and I competed to eat the crusty sugar bits that fell from the sides of the ham. Osley, Dad’s graduate student, joined us for dinner. We watched Dad’s slide show from this fall when they followed the fall foliage. Dad takes amazing photos. The second feature of the night was the DVD Wayne edited. It was well received. It gets better each year.
The coup de grace of the evening was playing Clue with Justin. It was fun to have him ask to play it since it was my favorite game as a child. I’ve had little success in getting people to play it. Settlers of Catton and other German fare seem more popular. I guessed the first set of clues by luck, but Wayne actually claimed the victory being in the same room with me. I won the next game by trumping Justin’s guess.
I’m glad there are 12 more days of this!