Merry Christmas to All!

I had a wonderful Christmas this year. I spent time with my family and friends, ate wonderful food and tried to de-stress the holiday. It really was nice. Christmas morning looked like this . . .

Isn't it just beautiful? I love this view on Christmas morning. There is nothing like it. It just brings joy to my heart. As always one of the first presents that I opened was a box of cereal. This has been a tradition in my family since we were little. With five kids in the family and the rule that only one person can open a present at a time . . . well, you get hungry! So Santa always brings us our favorite cereal. Mine is Fruity Pebbles.

Then the unwrapping began. This year I did a lot of the shopping with my mom, so I knew what 90% of my presents were going to be. Some of you might think that that's bad, that it ruins the surprise. Well, there is no surprise. That is true. But I loved the anticipation. I was planning where I was going to put this and when I was going to wear that. It was a lot of fun! There were a few surprises, which were great! Specifically the china and the iPod battery charger and USB computer vacuum. Back to the china. I realize that I'm not getting married anytime soon or even moving out, but when I saw this china, I knew it was meant for me. Every time we went to Macy's I would walk past it and admire it. I loved it! It is totally my style. I got four plates and four mugs that have the wonderful design on them. You can see them in the picture below, along with everything else that Victoria, Mom and I received.

The rest of the day was spent eating, then Victoria and I watched Stardust on the big screen, we gave out presents, we ate some more, gave out more presents and played Canasta. (There was a little part in there where I got a horrible stomach ache for about 2 hours, but let's not dwell on that!) That evening Melissa, Ryan, Jess and Michelle all came over. It was nice to visit and play games together. Truly it was a great Christmas!

Here are some pictures that didn't get in the last entry of the Christmas party, as well as my favorite Christmas card I designed this year.

This comes in several color variations, but I have to say that lime and pink is my favorite!



One of the few pleasant faced pictures that we have of Jess. He is with his dog Chopper (the one that got lost in the fruit room).



Jess and Michelle as their usual cute selves. Yes, Jess really looks like that a lot of the time.



I have never met two more photogenic people in my life. Ryan and Melissa look cute in every picture.



This is Ryan and Jeff having a great time eating mint ice cream pie with an Oreo crust. I think that they like it.

As for some other news I saw National Treasure 2 yesterday with Victoria. It was really great! I think as good as the first. I love Riley! It seemed to be neighborhood movie day, because we saw quite a few of neighbors there at 11 am the day after Christmas. I also watched Disturbia for the first time. That was interesting and intense. I rather enjoyed it, but it was definitely a daytime movie! Currently I am watching Smallville Season 6 and loving it. I have seen all of the other seasons, but this one is one of the tops. I really like season four - actually I own season four. I'm liking the whole Lex and Lana relationship. I hate that Lana gave Clark false hope ON HER WEDDING DAY!!! That was not ok! But I love the Justice League, and Oliver Queen. I love the Lois and Clark relationship as well - when she kisses him (and loves it) when he pretends to be the Green Arrow and when they both get a little high on red kryptonite. So far so good!