Christmas Time

So far, it's been a great Christmas.

On the 22nd, I went up on the roof and finished putting up all the Christmas lights. I also decorated this tree in our front yard. I decided it's fun to be the house with the most lights on the block. Next year, I'll have 3 times as many....because it's a lot of fun putting them up. :-)

Last night my Dad came over along with Marilyn, Zac and Juniper. They were joined by Heather's mom, brother and Stepdad for dinner. I also invited John and his sister over to join us. One thing I'll say for the new place is there is plenty of room, because it sure didn't feel like we were having a big crowd over. Still, it was a pretty big group and it was nice to have everyone over. It made our first Christmas here a really good one.

Heather made a really great turkey, plus a bunch of side dishes. I made the pumpkin pies and a few of the standard dishes. We had all three extra leaves in the table, and then set up one of my Star Wars crafting tables to hold all of the food like a buffet. People had seconds and thirds, so I guess everything turned out right. We had dinner and a fire for hours, then did presents until about 10pm. It was a nice evening.

Afterwards, Heather's family left, but mine went downstairs and played some DDR. I have some great pictures of my Dad, Marilyn and Zac playing on 3 mats. It was definitely one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I also think Dad and Marilyn are big fans because they played until after 11.

This morning, we got up and had another fire, did the rest of the presents (it was just like Christmas morning a day early) and had hot chocolate. I bought a bag of those mini-marshmallows and they made it all the more tasty. After the gifts, people had leftovers and then started packing up to go back to PA. It was a really fun morning, and I've spent the rest of the day just lounging.

It was really nice to have the holidays at the new house and this marks the first Christmas I don't have to drive 90 miles and spend the night on a couch at my Dad's. Actually, I suppose this marks the first Christmas I haven't spent at my Dad's since I was born. That's a little sad in a way, but they came here so it ended up being really cool.....and I think everyone had a great time.