The Afterglow? Aftermath? After-something...

Aaahhh...here I am, coming down after the Big Christmas Weekend O' Fun.  Let me share with you. I would try to be brief, but you know me....

Christmas Eve Thursday:   I worked until 1 pm.  On the way home from work I stopped by the grocery store to get my offerings for the Christmas Eve dinner that WTG ended up hosting.   I dropped my stuff by his place and went on home to chill for a bit.  The evening turned out a bit different than I'd planned.  Five minutes before we were going over there, WTG called and said to bring all the family presents.  He didn't see any point to having Xmas morning too.  Um, okay.  So we did all of our present opening that evening, after a fine meal.  The whole family was there except for Secret Agent Man, who as I mentioned, was working.  Otherwise it was a full house.  There was lots of good food and TONS of presents, especially for our three little people.  They made out like bandits. 

Here is my haul...Sense and Sensability and Sea Monsters, a little reading light, a Starbucks gift card, pictures of the kids, a cute box that looks like a book, a crock pot, The Office desk calendar, socks, pajamas, ugg-type boots, and pretty scents.  Not bad, eh?

Christmas Day Friday:  Since we had opened all of our gifts we didn't need to get up early Christmas morning.  It was the first time in about 25 years I hadn't done that!  We did eventually get going.  We decided to go out for a nice Christmas brunch at one of the places that was open...Dennys.  It was me, Girlie Girl, Handsome Lad, the Kick Back Dude gang, plus my mom.  After we ate, my mom went home and the rest of us plotted our day.  We decided to go to the movies, but we'd have to go in shifts because of the kids.  So first, Princess Diva and I went to see It's Complicated.  We really liked it...very funny and well done.  Next, Kick Back Dude, Girlie Girl, and Handsome Lad went to see Avatar.  They seemed to enjoy it....said it was amazing to look at, but very long :-) 

Here is our posh Chrismtas dinner from Burger King.  Little Prince looks a bit offended.  Perhaps rightly so, if he was expecting roast goose or something...

Finally, me GG and HL made a break for it and headed home.  Later on, after finishing with his family stuff, DR came over and it was the absolute perfect ending to a very nice day.

Saturday:  Slept in.  Aaahhhh...  Finally got going and went out to have a late lunch with the KBD gang.  DR and I took off after to do some shopping.  He had to buy something for his nephew's birthday.  Poor little fellow had the nerve to be born on the 28th.  We took our time wandering around and he found what he wanted.  He also wanted to find a new Ken Ken puzzle book, so that he and Princess Diva could work on it together as their little bonding activity, but we never did find one.  When we got home we just relaxed, watching tv and eating snacks...because apparently you cannot have enough food on Christmas weekend :-)

Sunday:  After we got up late, again, DR headed back to his place and the rest of us headed out again for yet another meal.  My dad and stepmom came down to do their Christmas with us.  We had a nice meal at our traditional venue, Peppertree, then back to my place for yet more gift exchanging...and yes, I did set out snacks.  *sigh*   They gave me a couple of pairs of fancy sweats and some cha-ching! cash.  Always appreciated.  After they left, we waited until it got dark then went out on a Christmas light viewing walkabout.  Of course, we usually have this activity before Christmas, but this year was all thrown off and strange with Princess Diva's unexpected hospitalization.  But we did want to get out there while there are still some lights.  It was lovely.  Sadly, a number of the homes, although we could see that their lights were still up, choose not to display them any longer.  Next year, we will definitely go before Christmas to get the full show. 

 

Here are Miss Personality and Love Bug looking cute amidst a well lighted home.  We managed to keep Little Prince in the stroller, or we would never have been able to walk the blocks without setting up a tent at some point.

The ladies did have some trouble with the concept that they were looking at people's private property...they wanted to get very up close and personal with everything they saw.  All those pretty lights were just way too tempting.

And THAT was my Big Christmas Weekend O' Fun.  I sort of dreaded it, sort of stressed about it...and it turned out to be a good, if busy time.  I hope your weekends were wonderful, too.  Now...onto the New Year!  What amazing things are in store for us in 2010?  I can't wait to find out.