On Christmas Eve we always head to MeMaw's (DH's mom) house for their celebration. DH snapped this picture of me pretty soon after we got there. I was staking out my seat on the couch. With minimal seats and many, many grandchildren, getting a place to sit on an actual couch is like musical chairs.
My son is making a triumphant roar of some kind as he opens this gift. He almost looks like he is going to kill it and eat it. In this side of the family, the opening of the presents is a chaotic affair. I am greatly distressed by this. When I was a child...we had a small family. It was my mom, my dad, my brother, and me. Each person got several presents and we took turns opening. As each person opened one of their gifts, the others waited patiently, watching to see the person's reaction, or to see what they received. It was very personal and very orderly. My guy's family is totally the opposite. Everyone rips at once. Wrapping paper is flying everywhere, everyone is talking, everyone opens all their gifts nonstop, with no pauses in between.
I guess to me, the giving of a gift is a personal thing. I take time to pick out a gift I think a person will truly enjoy. I like to see their face when they open it and hear what they say. Maybe I'm just being neurotic, who knows? All I know is that at MY house, I make everyone take turns. After my son opened the legos, we basically didn't see him for the rest of the night. All I saw was the back of his head, which was partially submerged in the box of legos.
We got one of the kids to take a picture of us...we feel it is important to get pictures of us together. So when we are older we remember what we looked like way back when.
After we got home, the stepkids had to go back to their mom's house. My son put on his new jammies and took the ceremonial leaving out of the cookies photo. This year we added a carrot for the reindeer. He finally kind of smiled, because I threatened him. I told him Santa didn't leave presents for boys that don't smile in their Christmas pictures. I know, I'm so bad.
We had a really nice Christmas this year, and I know we have so much to be thankful for. Next time, I'll show what happened on Christmas morning. Here's a hint: it involves me and sharp metal objects. Now, you can't miss that! Happy New Year to all!
Looks like you had a wonderful holiday! Thanks for the goodies you sent me.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your blogs. I have never done anything like what you have accomplished here, this site must take hours to update and keep current. Good for you! WOW is all I can say. You look very pretty and very slim, I can't imagine you have very much weight to loose! But that being said, I know how we all want to look and feel our best. Congratulations on all the hard work you've put into this site.
ReplyDeleteConstancia - Thank you so much. It was a lot of work in the beginning. Maintaining is not so bad. I have had trouble getting new posts up since I've been doing all this exercising, but I'm trying to post when I can. This site is very therapeutic for me, it is like an online record of things, a sometimes journal of things we do. So, I keep working on it. It would be fun to do something more serious with it someday when i have more time.
ReplyDeleteAs for my weight...thanks. But you will notice I rarely put any pics of my bottom half on here...LOL. My top half is very skinny, and I will take a bunch of pictures til I find one that makes me look better. There is a lot of trickery in my self pictures. I am not terrible, but my weight was slowly going up all the time. Have to get things in check while I still can.