The Christmas that almost wasn't

Occurring in the winter in the northern hemisphere as Christmas always seems to do, there are various ways our merriment is threatened each year.  Either somebody has a bad cold, the flu, a stomach bug, or the roads are in less than stellar condition.  This year we had to monkey with the dates of both extended family Christmases and even wondered if our Christmas at home would be messed up by the ill-timed xmas storm of '09.  Luckily it wasn't as terrible on Christmas Eve as the weather yahoos predicted, and we made it to the popular 4:00 Mass (had to show up at 3:15 to secure our seats).

We opened presents after supper on Christmas Eve.  Nate cheated against our rule of not buying gifts for each other this year by giving me this book 'from the kids.'  There's already a movie in the works.

Santa came and we opened round 2 of presents on Christmas morning.  Later, off to my folks' for supper and more presents.

This is a trellis arbor for their back yard.  I enjoy giving presents to my parents, especially my mom, to make up for all the years she was mostly gypped as I was growing up.  The worst year involved a last minute trip to the hardware store that scored her some generic Fig Newtons and mouse traps.  No joke.  Off to Nate's side of the fam the next day, where we enjoyed the weirdest Christmas in my history of celebrating there.  See what you can make of these:

 

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun!  Not pictured are the 'big daddy' hats and bunny ears all the 'kids' got.  I didn't ask these family members for permission to use these pictures, so there's John Doe, DeWayne, and Shaneequa (props to Michael for that one).

Christmas '09 is in the books.  As usual, we scrambled around in December trying to fit in all the decorating, shopping, wrapping, & baking.  We attempted to buy some stuff we thought our families would enjoy, and were blessed ten-fold in return with great company, great food, and more gifts than we probably deserve.