Christmas

Dan, Lexi & I were in PA for Christmas with my family. My office was closed on Christmas Eve so we left our house at 9:00 a.m. & drove up there. We got there around 2:00 p.m. & Mom was already baking/cooking; the entire house smelled so good. :o) Once we got settled in, I helped Mom in the kitchen with the Christmas cookies that we make every year. Dan even got into the spirit & decorated with me:

Of course he thought his decorations were better than mine, but they weren't. ;o)
Mom & Dad.
Dad & I.
On Christmas morning we got to sleep in & didn't actually get up until 9:00 a.m. Before we opened presents, my Mom had me distract my Dad with a dog walk because she had bought him a recliner for Christmas & wanted to get it set up in the living room before we all went in to open our presents. While Dad, Emma, Lexi & I went for a walk, my Mom & Dan carried the chair down & set it up. When we got back, he finally got to see it: He was so excited; he's been wanting one for years. My parents then wanted Dan to open his big gift: Which was a lawnmower: Since we have lived in our townhouse, we have either borrowed a lawnmower from the high school on the weekends or borrowed our neighbor's to cut our backyard. Now we no longer have to do that! Dan was very excited. We all then started opening our gifts & here's what we got:

Dan: tool box; power screwdriver, movies, clothes, new athletic watch (from me) & 2 new jackets (1 dress down jacket & one dress jacket): This is the one that I got him; it was a little too small so we had to exchange it when we got back to VA.

Me: new set of pots & pans (Rachael Ray); new canisters for our kitchen; Banana Republic sweater (from Dan); earrings & fleece (from my brother); picture frames; & Ugg boots (from Dan).

My parents got Ben a brand new entertainment center & a new flat screen TV for Christmas. After everyone was done opening their presents, we took him into his room where it was just partially set up, without his knowning:
The bad thing about this Christmas was that several things started to go wrong. As soon as I opened our new canisters, things went down hill. My Mom & I were trying to get the styrofoam out of the way so we could take a closer look at the canisters & as I was pulling one out, I broke off the handle on one of the lids. :o( I felt terrible because I saw the look on my Mom's face & she was devastated. Thankfully, it was a clean break & my Dad was able to super glue it & it was good as new. Whew! The luck kept continuing, as my Mom handed Dan the dress jacket from me, she said, "here you go Dano, open your jacket." She instantly covered her mouth & her eyes got real wide. Everyone got quiet & Dan said, "it's OK, I knew I was getting a jacket." We all started laughing. After breakfast, my Mom started to put the turkey in the oven but it was unable to fit due to the pot that it was in & the fact that the ham had to cook in there with it. We had to jerry rig a cheap aluminum container & even though it worked, the turkey took forever to cook & by the time we were ready to eat our dinner, it was no where near ready. We ate just the ham instead. It was very frustrating for my Mom because her Christmas dinner didn't turn out the way she wanted. We all thought it was a great dinner though, even without the turkey. Here's a pic I took of Mom in her cute apron doing her thing in the kitchen: To continue with our luck of the day, while I was setting the table for Christmas dinner, I dropped one of my Mom's white, tall candles that she has had for years & only puts out at Christmas; of course it broke in half & I had to tell her what happened. My Mom had planned to make more cinnamon buns that evening but since everything seemed to be going wrong, she decided to postpone it & make them in the morning; she had a feeling that they would turn out horribly just because of the way the day was going. Now of course, these aren't terrible things, they're just annoying & like my Dad said, "if this is all that goes wrong for us today, we are pretty damn lucky." Here are a few more pics I took before we opened our presents: Dan & Ben
Us (I love this one of Dan). After Christmas dinner, we decided to take a few family photos. Here are the ones that were taken with my camera: "The kids."
With Mom.
With Dad.
Our family of 3 (I love that Dan is holding Lexi's paw).
We later figured out how my Mom's camera timer works & we took our entire family photo with hers. I still need to get a copy of those pics.

We had a wonderful Christmas & were so grateful to spend it in PA; even though my Mom put an extra 10 lbs. on us from all of the food that she made. I have never eaten that much in 4 days, ever. We hope all of you had a Merry Christmas. :o)