We celebrated our own little Norman Rockwell-ish Christmas yesterday. I volunteered to take the family to IHOP for a late breakfast (I’ve ranted about my dislike for truck-stop-like breakfast places here before, no need to rehash other than to say this was obviously a Christmas miracle), we came home and made cookies and white chocolate dipped pretzel sticks with sprinkles and I worked some on my gifts for the client I have for Secret Santa.
This year he wanted Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton posters among other things. Simpson was easy (as I re-read this I realize how terrible that statement reads, but oh well) but do you know I looked EVERYWHERE and couldn’t find a Paris Hilton poster. In the end I downloaded some pix from the internet and printed them on nice photo paper and framed them for him. Last year it was Anna Nicole Smith and I had to do this as well, so I was familiar with the process and it was a snap. He’s always fun to shop and make gifts for.
We watched White Christmas, easily one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies. The music, dancing and sets are wonderful and the story is very heartwarming in that Norman Rockwell kind of way. Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemarie Clooney, and Vera-Ellen are fantastic.
Mary made a marvelous dinner of turkey legs, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn and rolls. Terrific, terrific meal…my darling is a wonderful cook among her other many talents. I’m a lucky man!!! Yay for me!!!
After dinner we read the Christmas story out of the book of Luke, another family tradition and one that moves me every year. The magnitude of God’s love for us and the gift of his Son always hits me more at Christmas than at Easter for some reason. Maybe because I am naturally more open to my feelings about everything this time of year.
And then of course we opened presents. It is very enjoyable now that Tori is older as we really take our time and enjoy all our gifts. I was so excited as we had gotten her some really funky bar stools for her room and I had put one together and hid it in the garage. I went to such elaborate plans to hide the one I put together and had the other wrapped in its box under the tree. As we were getting ready to open presents I excused myself and put the assembled one in the computer room. Unfortunately I then forgot about it and when Tori took Razz out to go to the bathroom midway through gift giving she saw it. To her credit she kept quiet until after she opened the other one. Now Mary and Tori have something to make fun of me over as they are usually the ones who end up telling surprises. Poor me…I tried.
After all the presents were done we realized Santa had left us a gift under the tree….a Playstation 2!!! Tori was more excited than Mary but she came around when we loaded We Love Katamari! and started playing it. If you haven’t played this game or its prequel Katamari Damacy, you’ve missed out. It is goofy chaos courtesy of our Japanese game creating brethren. Your sole goal is to roll a ball (the katamari) around various areas collecting anything in your path until it gets bigger and bigger. Its way too hard to explain but you need to see it (go to the link). The rest of the night was spent playing that and enjoying each other’s company.
I again hope you all have a wonderful, Merry Christmas and that the magic and wonder of Christmas touches your heart and surrounds you this weekend. You all are wonderful!
(Yes its Barbie!…the Dibben girls will appreciate it!)
It’s nice to have Razz home for Christmas. I’m sure Mary has told you about the
episode between him and the cat and Elaina!
My family loves to play our Playstation 2. I just like to watch but we all have a good time.
You guys will enjoy it.
At first I could not figure out what that picture of the bar stool was. It looks like something
you’d order out of one of those “naughty” magazines!
I hope you continue to have a very Merry Christmas!
I mean catalog not magazine. Oh never mind. I am going to get myself in over my head.
Have a great Christmas weekend…!
Merry Christmas, Anderson family! Hope you have safe travels to and from Nebraska. And today and tomorrow are VERY busy for this church musician! Pray that my hands, feet, and voice all cooperate (yes, I’m playing organ, that’s why I’m asking for blessings on my feet too!). Hope you have a wonderful time with the Nebraska Andersons.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Prayers said Laura. Merry Christmas everyone…hope you all awake to find that Santa visited and gave you everything you asked for…including a Robin costume for Julian! 😉
It sounds like you had a great time. christmas is such a magic time for me. I love it more every year. it also added to it that I was reading the first (or fifth) Narnia book. It added to my sense of magic.
happy many holidays & all that jazz, carl v!
sounds like you all had a great christmas!
now, i’m hoping things slow down for a while..
tho, when i left this morning for work, i found that the garage door is broken.
someone must have slid into it while the roads were bad (my garage is in an alley-way), and never told me.
so who knows how much this is going to cost to get fixed. i don’t want to have a permanently open garage. (i had to push it up manually, while holding the button.. just to get it to go up). merry christmas to me.
I’m sorry Angela…I hate it when money-eating things happen right after Christmas. I reached up to take my glasses off the night before last and one of the side pieces broke off…it was more cost efficient to go ahead and have them order me a new frame (at least I’ll have extra parts!), but that was $100 bucks I didn’t want to spend right after Christmas. Hopefully it won’t be too expensive for you.
Happy Holiday to you and yours!!!
i like how barbie’s head looks like it’s on fire
Same to you Mysfit…I hadn’t noticed that! It really does!
Merry Christmas to all! Sounds like the Anderson family had a great time. We also received a Playstation 2 this Christmas and entered the gaming world. My kids also were VERY happy with this gift they gave me. Aren’t they sly and there only 6 and 9. Man I’m in trouble in the years ahead. 🙂
Sure is a shame you couldn’t find a psoter of Paris Hilton. She seems like such a nice girl. NOT!
As much as I like White Christmas I prefer Holiday Inn. Check it out sometime too. They are both great though. I only like watching them at this time of year though. I can’t enjoy them in the summer time. Ya know what I mean?