Happy Hoildays

We had our Christmases.  On Christmas Eve, we headed to my parents' house.  It was quite the gathering.  It was Mom, Dad, Danny, Laurie, Holly, Jason, Kris, Alejandro, Jim, Cas, the triplets and me.  Eleven adults and three infants.  Holy cow.  Like I said, it was quite the gathering.  I brought over my extra margaritas from the party Cas and I had.  Mom had a ton of food laid out, and Jim even brought a veggie tray and some cookies.  We had quite the afternoon and evening,  After all the presents were opened, we sat around the fire pit in the backyard with our short sleeves on and our shoes off.  The weather was good for it, and the evening was pretty great.

After Holly packed up three babies and started her van, I stuck around for a moment and helped clean up a little.

Then next morning, Cas and I went to his cousin's house for brunch and saw his dad's stepmom.  I suppose that makes the woman his step-grandmother.  We saw her and had a lovely egg dish with some of his more distant family members.  I got a nap in on Christmas afternoon, but Cas didn't.  In retrospect, he really should have.  It would have been helpful, because he was pretty wiped out by the end of the day.

We went to his mom's house in the afternoon for a Christmas dinner and still more presents.  By the end of the multiple Christmases and housewarming gifts and such, I had accumulated almost every item on my Amazon wish list.  It was ridiculous.  I kept putting things on the list, and apparently, people kept buying them.  It was an embarrassment of riches.

To be fair, Cas and I gave presents, as well.  I drew my mom's name for my family's exchange, and she had about five or six boxes to open.  Cas drew my dad's name, and he picked up some motorcycle parts.  Over at Jeanne and Dave's house, we got something for everyone.  It was a good time.  Jeanne was apparently pretty happy with the engraved wine glass, but Dave was discovering the real present- we're sending them on the wine bus trip we did back in early September.

Yesterday, we took a moment to breathe in and out.  Today, we are off to celebrate Jeanne's birthday.  A trip to Ice at the Gaylord Texan is in the offing, and we are gearing up for that now.  It's a gray, rainy and crappy day.  I guess the beautiful, t-shirt weather had to come to a close at some point...  So, it's rain on the way there and Ice this afternoon.