Holidays 2009

     The Holidays this year had their ups and downs, though mostly ups.
     For Thanksgiving this year my brother and his family came to visit.  They arrived on Wednesday night and the fun and chaos started right away.
     My brother and his family play a role-playing game that is similar to, but very different from Dungeons and Dragons.  I'm not really into role-playing: I don't think fast enough to be able to follow along and contribute to what is happening.  Lee, on the other hand, has enjoyed role-playing games in the past and was quite excited to play.  He even created the scenarios and was the game master the first 2 days of playing.
     Thanksgiving day was quite hectic, what with the gaming going on and me and mom trying to get Thanksgiving dinner ready: mom as Sous Chef while I did most of the cooking.  To give credit where it belongs, mom did most of the desserts and my nephews and niece helped with some of the dinner as well, and they were helpful.  The one mishap, though, was when I had to go next door to try to make one of the pies, and when I had to come back over for something, the neighbor's dogs got up on the counter and took the crusts out of the package and ate them. LOL. We ended up without that pie that day. The day turned out quite nicely, though.
     The rest of the weekend was spent playing, arguing, visiting, etc.  You know, basically like most family holidays. LOL.  It was a very good weekend, though, and we were very sorry to see them leave on Sunday afternoon.
 

Christmas this year was very simple.  None of the family could get out here for Christmas this year again, so it was just us with mom and dad.  Work schedules didn't permit any of us traveling this year; and honestly, Lee and I couldn't afford to go anyway.
     Still, it was a nice Christmas.  We didn't have to worry about things being too stressful, and it was nice to be able to relax when most people were going through the stresses of Christmas.
     As soon as I got home from work on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 24th) we all went next door to our neighbors to bring Christmas gifts to them.  They are like family to us now and we wanted to share with them as we would with our biological family.  That evening we visited a bit and opened some of our presents.  We were missing family quite a bit, though.
     This morning (Dec. 25th) Lee and I were awoken before 8:00 by a text message from my sister wishing us a Merry Christmas.  As soon as I walked out my door mom was instantly asking if we were ready to go downstairs.  I'm not sure how she really meant it, but she sounded like a little kid anxious to see what Santa brought, lol. Anyway, not long after that we all went downstairs and opened gifts.  It was a simple Christmas with a few gifts (due to our financial situation), but I think we all enjoyed what we did get.
     A family Christmas tradition on both sides of my family is to have a Christmas Breakfast. So, since we couldn't be with them this year, we had our own.  Once again Mom was Sous Chef for me while I cooked. It's a system that seems to work well for us.
     Lee and I are looking forward to New Year's Day when his parents will be in town to visit us for the day. 
     We really miss spending Christmas with our families and friends and we want all of you to know how much we truly miss you.   You have been in our thoughts this season.

Once again, pictures will be coming.