Post Christmas Rehash

I hope everyone had a very lovely Christmas yesterday. I was hoping to post last night but I didn't get back home until 11:00 at night. Then I had to unload my car, feed the cat, and hook back up my computer. I figured it could wait until this morning.

Christmas Eve I went to stay with my parents.

The tree.
A small portion of my mom's nutcracker collection.
Nativity set.
My furry brother Luke. Even though my parents have had him for awhile I don't think I've ever gotten around to sharing pictures of Luke. He's still a baby (only 4or 5 months old) but look at how big he is! He's an English Springer Spaniel. My aunt and uncle bought a Springer Spaniel about 6 months ago not realizing she was pregnant. She had 8 puppies and Luke is one of them.
We had a big dinner with my extended family at my parents house that night. There was much gift giving and food eating. I can't even begin to describe the whirlwind that is my two little cousins (5 and 3) but I can show you a picture of their aftermath. This is my parents playroom and those little colored bits are Lego's.
My dad and my brother were on clean up duty for that room. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of good food. That night I stayed at my parents with my brother and my Aunt Becky. It's a Christmas tradition for all of us to be at home on Christmas morning. That way we can open the presents Santa left! I realize that I'm 25 years old and, at this point, would normally have stopped receiving presents from Santa but I'm under the firm conviction that my belief in him keeps him coming back each year. That and I'm not married and don't have children and Christmas without Santa would be pretty sad.

I will spare you the "early" morning pictures of my family (and myself) looking half awake as we opened presents at the crack of 10 in the morning. Aunt Becky did receive her hand knit gift from me though, an Irish Hiking Scarf.
She loved it! I found this alpaca/wool blend yarn at Knitch months ago and knew it would be perfect shade of blue/grey for her. I think it turned out really well and was a breeze to make. All the details can be seen on my Ravelry page.

That morning we also taught Luke how to open presents. He was a very willing learner once he figured out that he could run off and shred the paper to bits.
Yesterday night me, my parents, my brother, and Brandi trekked over to my Aunt Janice's house on the other side of town for more food. There were also games! At her house we each bring a gift card and a small gift (a book, some sparklers, a cheap DVD, or, in my cousin's case, a Boston Creme pie...). Then we play a series of games and the person with the highest points at the end gets to choose their gift card first. I usually end up somewhere near the middle or end but I still got some hand soap and a Target gift card. The general uproar the games cause is where the real fun is at (I still maintain that a "dollar" is something that is cold...you know, "cold cash"? That's points for creativity right there!).

I came home last night and crashed, fully prepared to sleep until noon. My neighbor had different plans though, as I was awakened this morning at 10 to the gentle sounds of jackhammering (it was probably just drilling but it sounded worse from my side of the wall). I'm going to go sort through all my gifts to try and take the edge off.

Happy Holidays!