When I left off yesterday I had just mentioned that the twins were in the cutest holiday outfits ever. I have photographic proof of this. Beware the cuteness that follows!
We had our traditional Christmas brunch of champagne & orange juice, caramel rolls, fruit, and a really yummy oven egg bake dish. Mmmm. Christmas brunch is the same every year & I wouldn't change a bit of it! We opened presents before eating, and from mom and dad came the usual gift of dead presidents. It is always good, although dead postmaster/almanac writers would be better... But hey, we like presidents! The stocking also had the usual fare: an orange way down in the toe, a candy cane, and an ornament. Mom had crocheted (or maybe knitted) stockings for the twins and instead of oranges in the toe they had cute little tangerines. At six months the twins don't really have the present opening concept down & they don't care what they get so
hellbob & I decided to work on building their library with the Curious George books.From my brother & his wife I got a gift certificate from Archiver's. Crafty stuff! And
genevra & akdar got me a book: When Pancakes Go Bad which is chock full of Photoshop goodness from Worth1000.com. We watched A Christmas Story and it was the first time
akdar ever saw it from beginning to end. TNT shows it for 24 hours straight on Christmas day but since we were celebrating the day after genevra had to buy the videotape when she found it for only $3.00. Daddy set up the toy train that he has had since he was a kid around the tree again this year. Here's a picture of it:
I also showed mom the knitting I had done so far after teaching myself & she informed me that I was doing it too tight. Also she showed me how to perl (sp?) and said I should do one row knitting and the next perling. I also stole some knitting needles from her so I could give Genevra hers back, and a skein of yarn for practicing with. The practice yarn is 100% Virgin Wool (poor sheep never got any lovin'...) and when Gramma saw it she said it was really high quality yarn. Unfortunately, even though I found a nice grey for me & a maroon color for genevra, most of mom's yarn is in the lovely 1970's greens & oranges. bleah!
After digesting our food for a while
hellbob & I headed over to his sister's house. We briefly saw his step-sister Debbie & her husband Floyd before they took off, and shortly after that Rick's sister & her husband headed out on their date while we babysat their kids. Julie & Don's wedding anniversary is the 26th. Rick's dad was also there & we managed to really surprise him with his Christmas gift. All 3 kids & spouses went together on a photo quality printer & some photo paper to go with the digital camera he had just gotten. He was totally not expecting it! Yay! From dad we got our traditional potica from the bakery up north. We also got a book of cute computer geek cartoons & a Timberlodge gift certificate. Mmmmm. Steak! We got a Christmas serving plate, a framed picture of our niece Halle, a cat shaped photo holder, and a diabetic cooking book from Julie, and a picture frame & some nuts from Debbie & Floyd.
Dad didn't stay too long after Don & Julie went out because his wife Annette had stayed home with the Chest Cold From Hell. It turned out to be a pretty sucky holiday trip for her & hopefully we'll get a chance to see her before they leave this week to go back to Phoenix.
Julie had talked Gramma into coming down to the Cities to stay with her for a few weeks & so she was there also. It's so nice to get to spend time with her. We don't get up to Hibbing nearly enough to see her. She's looking so healthy & happy lately. I only hope I'm doing so well at 90. She checked out my knitting a couple times & said I was doing really good. Also, at one point when I had set it down for a bit I was confused when picking it up whether I was working on a knitting row or a perling row & Halle in that wise way that only a 5 year old can said "You should ask Great-Gramma for help" Sure enough, Gramma knew which way I was going & which stitch to do. I'm not really sure what I'm knitting right now. It's too wide to be a scarf so it will probably be a cat blanket. If it is up to Lump's standards that is.
Today was mostly lazy, sleeping in under the spell of Tylenol PM. Then I ran some errands. I scored this year's ornament in the Hallmark Seuss series at Kohl's for half price. I was however thwarted in my quest for a Bill n' Opus ornament. I don't even know for sure if Carleton made one this year...
Then in the evening
michaellee & frozendragon stopped in so frozendragon could check out our basement apartment. We had previously discussed her moving in, but of course she wanted to see it before such a thing was finalized. This was followed by dinner at El Loro with the two of them and chebutykin & cajones. Gifts were exchanged & I got a copy of Just a Geek and hellbob got the new Peter Gabriel DVD with all the videos. And much good food was eaten. We then retreated to the Asylum where chebutykin showed us highlights of the movie Ong-bak. The fighting in this rivals anything Jackie Chan has done!Now I've got to try to get to bed at a decent hour since I have to go to that evil place called work tomorrow!
