It's a Merry Christmas

I had a really fun Christmas this year.

Last year was a bit...strained. It's water under the bridge now, so I will refrain from rehashing all the unpleasant details.

This year we went down to the in-laws house on Christmas Eve and stayed the night. I only slept between 4 am and 6 am because the dogs were so wound up, they wouldn't lay down and be still and I am a light sleeper. I woke up thinking the lack of sleep could spell trouble because when I get tired, I am often cranky. Surprisingly, I think I might be growing out of that trait. Jeremy's dad made me oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. The dogs got banned to the backyard. Jeremy, me and his parents all hung out until about 9 am when Jeremy took the karoke machine, put in a Mexican polka CD, cranked it as loud as possible, opened the door to the room where his sisters were sleeping and pressed PLAY.

You may think that is really mean, but it was simply a pay back for 2 years ago when Jeremy got the same wake-up treatment, just with a different song. Jeremy donned a Mexican blanket and sombrero and danced in the hallway until the girls came out.

We didn't start opening presents until 10:30 or so because the girls wanted to get dressed to the nines for a picture of the family that mom wanted for about a year. Being in the festive Christmas mood, everyone decided to give her what she wanted. So now we have a family picture for my husband's family.

I shall post some of these pictures later.

Present opening took two and a half hours. For one, Jeremy is the king of slow unrapping. When it was pointed out to him, he felt the need to go even slower. Plus, there were gobs of gifts. Everyone had about 20 gifts. The mom had 28. So it took a while. We all are required to ooh and ahhh over the gift that has been opened before proceeding to the next unwrapping. I got lots of stuff: a candle, picture frames, belts, earrings, Friends DVDs, coffee accessories, a creme brulee set (the torch in it is very cool), video editing software, and more.

It was so nice out (about 65 degrees) that I gave the dogs a bath because they smelled like poop and the ride down was not pleasant. So the dogs got a Christmas bath. We went to Walgreens and had some of the pictures developed.

It was probably the first Christmas that I really felt like a family member with my husband's family. I had fun, I felt relaxed, I was myself. It was a good time!

On Friday night, Jeremy and I opened presents together. He got me a telescope that is so advanced that I can't even figure out how to use it. Hahaha. I also got jewelry, chocolate, elephant sculpture (I kinda collect them) and some other stuff from him. I gave him a whole bunch of stuff, including a book "Karma Sutra". It's actually funny if you read the book. Gentlemen should wake up, take a bath, clean their armpits and spend the morning watching fowl, cocks or bulls fight then have lunch, take a nap and then party with their friends into the night. LOL.