We'll Never Let Her Live it Down

I was finishing up a long stretch of work over Christmas Eve and Christmas, so tired would be just one word to describe my demeanor, but on Christmas morning, despite already being up all night, I had a short burst of adrenaline.

A Christmas Story was playing in it's usual background noise marathon fashion, and Dusty was patiently waiting on the couch when I was greeted by the tantalizing aroma of smoldering pork weaving it's way through the house and out the back door. Patrick had got up early to make an entire breakfast spread.
Warm, full, and excited, we exchanged gifts, which made it even harder to force myself to sleep all day, since I was ready to use the Nesspresso I unwrapped!! Patrick got a rice cooker for making sushi, and Dusty, parts to his beloved jet ski. That afternoon I woke up to the most wonderful news of being On-Call (which thankfully lasted all night!!!) and a classic Christmas day meal (slaved over by my truly dedicated husband). The evening would be spent watching as many Christmas movies as possible while sipping fancy espresso. 

The following weekend we pretended it was Christmas all over again at the Carruth's.

Everyone got exactly what they wanted (we cheat by drawing names and handing out wish lists).

No more toys for our oldest niece, she's moved on to bigger and better things (I made her something to hang her scarfs on, per request).

I could barely squeezed my eyes closed that night in anticipation of going to get my favorite breakfast burrito (an Elephante from Lolita's) the next morning. Truth be told, I fell asleep in about 3.7 seconds, but I was indeed really excited....................

  .................I even got to see my Vanessa (two of my favorite things about Waco all rolled into one)!!!!

Then off to Nana's house we went, where Santa has an actual chimney to crawl down and fill our stockings that had been patiently waiting for our arrival. 

Nana's are all about bribery, which means they dangle presents in front of your face to make you pose for cheesy pictures in front of the Christmas tree (When we were younger she bribed us through countless rolls of film with the promise to take us to TILT for some game playing.)

Peeking over the mountains of wrapped gifts, we started to look pretty spoiled.

One by one, we took turns opening a single present, so we could pay attention, give individual thanks, appreciate the moment (a tradition we adopted from the Carruth's house).

This of course, required a great deal of self control and effort on my father's behalf. I told him not to cry, but men will be men. 

I found my mom an almost perfect sign for her craft room in their new house a few months ago and made it 100% perfect with a little paint, "Your crazy is showing, you might want to tuck that back in FLAUNT IT!!"

Don't be fooled by Patrick's Solo party cup's appearance, it's actually made of porcelain.

Nana wasn't concerned with opening her gifts; she was more fixated on taking pictures of our every move......

.....Like when all the women wore our chicken hot pad lid grabbers as hats, but couldn't actually get together for a photo because Allison was hopping around the room in agony with a muscle cramp while we all laughed at how ridiculous she looked.
It was silly times and a day filled with probably more "That's what she said" insinuations than any one day should be accustomed to.

Speaking of silly, how about that one time when I came up with the brilliant idea to surprise Patrick with a really nice travel acoustic guitar for his birthday and Christmas, got the whole family in on it, and managed to keep it a secret against all odds until 5 minutes before he unwrapped it? I'll never forget the look on Patrick's face when he heard Nana say, "And Patrick, I gave the money for your guitar to Kayla."
"I got a guitar???" He squeaked as he flew off the couch and out to the car to retrieve the gigantic blue box.
At least I had it wrapped in a box inside another wrapped box, adding to the suspense for a extra nano second longer, and blew him away with a Little Martin instead of a Baby Taylor. But I don't think we'll ever let Nana live this one down.

And just something to think about, does anyone notice anything oddly different about my stocking? Maybe even a few things that make it stick out from the bunch?