Christmas

We had a really nice Christmas this year. It was the first year Duke and I spent it together too. My brother, Duke, and I spent Christmas Eve hanging out at the house and cooking some food. Duke made some goulash and my brother made some chicken stew. This was the first time I'd ever had my brother's cooking so it was a treat. Haha. My parents, sister & family ended up coming over for dinner, so we had a full house. My dad brought over some lobster too for dinner.

I played some Super Mario with Dylan, we chatted during dinner, and we let the kids open up one gift each. Dylan got a Sonic race car, and Brandon opened up his book that I made for him using his picture so he was with all his favorite Sesame Street characters. Both of the boys loved the gifts, and we spent some time playing with them and taking some family photos.

After everyone left, my brother, Duke, and I tried a new game called Galaxy Truckers. It's actually pretty fun but it takes FOREVER to learn. There are a ton of pieces and rules, and Duke was pretty tired of it. Haha.

On Christmas day, Duke cooked some waffles for breakfast (which my brother had with his stew which sounds gross), and we hung out for a bit before heading over to my sister's. She just moved into her new house, so this was the first Christmas we'd spend over there. My parents joined us soon after we arrived, and we had some of Duke's pasta salad and my dad's lobster for lunch. We also brought over the Wii and all the games so that Dylan could play.

The day was pretty relaxing - just some conversations, goofing around with the kids, and opening gifts. I think this was a rather successful gift-giving year - Dylan loved all the toys we got him (Transformers, Super Mario Chess, Sonic Car, and Thundercats sword). The sword took the cake though. He did not let go of that thing the entire day/night and kept saying "Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats...Whoa!!!" It was hilarious. He even went into the dark just to see the little Thundercats symbol light up and kept saying how awesome it was. It was really cute.

Brandon also had a huge smile on his face with every gift (Elmo, Yo Gabba Gabba keyboard). He was very excited until my parents gave him a box of clothes. It was so hilarious. He kept yelling "No!" and throwing the clothes out of the way so he could play with his toys. Haha.

We also gave my sister some goodies from Michigan (chocolate non-pareils which are her favorite and some summer sausage) which got a good chuckle, along with some clothes and miscellaneous other things.

Dinner was made by my sister's husband, and it was a huge success. He made Korean-style short ribs and it was delicious! We played Scattergories for a little while with my mom, and earlier, my brother had tried to play a money game with Dylan to help him learn how to count coins, etc. That wasn't overly successful but the game was for age 7+ and Dylan's only 4. No excuses, according to my brother, but I thought Dylan did a good job for what he did understand.

My brother was watching a basketball game that he had bet money on, and Dylan was picking up some of the terminology which was pretty funny. He would boo the Magic, and cheer on the OKC Thunder (which coincidentally matched the whole Thundercats phenom so that was appropriate). After that game was over, another game came on, and Dylan asked who were the bad guys, and said "Someone is going to get paid!" Haha. So silly.

It was getting late, so we headed back home after the kids went to bed. Duke went to bed just as we got back, and my brother and I stayed up a little, playing a little bit more of Scattergories.

The day after Christmas, we played some more Scattergories - Duke had never played this game before this weekend so he wanted to practice. Mark came over, so we played a couple rounds with him and then tried another go at Trucker's Galaxy. We played the full game this time (the previous night was only a practice round - that's how cumbersome the game is - they actually go through a practice round with you in the instructions), and it was pretty fun.

We all then headed to dinner to get some Chinese food, and Duke and Mark headed off to Vegas so that Duke would spend Part 2 of Christmas with his family.

My brother and I worked from home today, and he left in the afternoon, so it's a quiet house yet again. A bit messy which I haven't fully cleaned up yet, but that's ok. It was a really fun, nice last few days. Everyone got along really well, no drama anywhere, and lots of good memories. What else can I ask for.