Holiday Cheer

Where to begin?
Well we had our holiday party with friends at our place and it was a lot of fun! I over-indulged in food and drink since it was my house and I didn't plan to get into a car at any point during the night. Chris and Lisa brought a friend with them - Noura and her little brother. She stole the party. Noura had a very intense personality and had apparently just returned from Saudi Arabia or somewhere from a marriage gone bad in the Middle East. So we were happy to have her party with us for Christmas. At our White Elephant Gift Exchange I opened a gift that contained an Electronic Yodeling Pickle. Yes, that's right - an electronic yodeling pickle and that's what it is - it looks like a pickle in every way except that it's plastic and has a place you can press it and a little speaker area where the yodeling can be heard. Once you press the button it doesn't shut up yodeling for about a minute. The gift I wrapped was a castle toy for a child aged 3+ that I was going to give to James at one point in his life but now he's too old for it so it's literally been sitting in our garage all this time. I thought this was a good time to get rid of it. Noura got stuck with it so I hope she knows a child aged 3+ to regift to.

I got paid for 246 hours of vacation and 72 hours of holiday time from my old job on Galveston Island and that has assisted me in paying off 3 whole credit cards, be the giver at Christmas, pay the balance on Chelsea's class ring that she now has, get her year book, purchase Apple Care on my new laptop computer, and left me with enough for new tires for my car, and a tune up. After this I hope to still be able to afford stuff for New Year's Eve and National Chelsea's Day. When I get my income tax refund check I'm going to pay off one more credit card and then I'll be down to one credit card! Whooo Hoooo! YAY! I can't wait to be debt free!

We did Christmas Eve with my family a day early which was Rhonda's birthday. I promised her I would take her shopping for her gift - which I haven't done yet. We should do that tomorrow! My dad came to my house for Christmas and he was in a lot of pain still. He developed a staph infection after his knee replacement surgery about a month ago and is still fighting it. He was just released from the hospital last Saturday so he probably shouldn't have been out and about on Tuesday night for Christmas Eve but he was. It was so nice getting to have everyone over here for the gift opening. My mom's house is a little crowded for that. I must say that my favorite gift from that night came from Kevin and Sophia - Thank you guys so much!!!

The next day was actual Christmas Eve - Chelsea and I shopped at the mall for the greater part of the day and then we (Chelsea, Chris & I) met Carmen and Kevin at Berryhill Taco for lunch/dinner / drinks. It was about 3pm and we didn't start out hungry due to late lunch. It was so awesome to see them again. It's been far too long. Houston and I both need Carmen and Kevin in town. ~ sigh... Oh we also ran into Waleed an old friend of Teffanie and Travis' whom I had not seen in probably 10 years. So that was kinda cool.

Christmas day we finalized our gift wrapping and waited for Colin to arrive. He gets exchanged at noon on Christmas day. In the past they've been able to work out solutions to this ridiculous rule in mutually agreeable ways but this year his mother decided that she wanted to drop him off at our house at noon with no discussion as to how that affected our plans. In the end it did not matter much but it does make things slightly difficult with Chris having an ex. I don't have that problem with Chelsea's father so I can't imagine having to put up with bullshit from another adult involved in my child's life. I'm sure it's just as difficult for her as it is for Chris. So we left our house at noon for Peter & Frances' house where Christmas dinner awaited us in style!

They had cooked roasted turkey with two kinds of stuffing - one in each end of the bird - bread sauce, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, peas, green bean casserole, broccoli, corn bread muffins, and wine. I was so full! Then we opened gifts! OMG! I felt like we didn't give half as much as we got. I was floored and overwhelmed with the quantity and quality of gifting we received and I'm so greatful! I got a couple of bottles of wine, a new wine opener that stands up and you just push this lever down and pull it back up and the wine is uncorked, a George Forman grill with removable plates that can be put into the dishwasher - it's also huge so we can cook for the whole family at once instead of two at a time, bath & body works products and a salt rub and lotion from somewhere else, a new cookbook - a huge one!, a chopper for onions or garlic or whatever, an herb mincer, money from Chris' Granny in England, a beautiful tray from Chris' Aunt Lindsay in England with a lemon print on it, a silicone pot holder - pot grabber, a set of candles, and a tote bag with an M applique stitched to it made by Penny. We had a lot of fun.

On the way home we stopped at my parents house to visit with my dad for a bit but Colin was asleep in the car - totally worn out - so we only stayed for about 30 mintues. We gave Dave his last gift that hadn't arrived in the mail until the 24th so it wasn't available during the gift exchange on the 23rd, and Chris got his first issue of Rolling Stone magazine that Dave got him a subscription to. Then we headed home.

At home we had our own little family gift exchange with the kids. That was so incredibly awesome. From Chelsea I got the Ped Egg which I've been wanting for ages - plus a box of replacement cartridges, from Colin I got some stationery, from Chris I got some really awesome gifts!!! an iPod beamer for my car that will charge and play any iPod through the speakers in my car, a chair massager that sits in a chair and has rollers that massage your back - you can try these out at places like Bed Bath & Beyond, or Sharper Image and I now own one! I also got Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii but haven't had a chance to play it yet because Chelsea got Guitar Hero for the Wii and has been rocking out in the living room ever since. She also got the entire collection of the series Roswell on DVD from me and the movie The 10th Kingdom which we love, she also got about $80 worth of iTunes gift cards from various people. Colin now has an entire arsenal of nerf weaponry - about 25 different guns. For his birthday he gets to have a sleep over and he and his friends will have a nerf battle to end all nerf battles. I have almost 2 months to boys-with-nerf-guns-proof my house. Chris got Wii disc golf/beach games, a new strap for his disc golf bag, a new wallet that we need to exchange, a new sunglasses holder for his car viser, and some little stuff. I didn't get him a huge gift this Christmas because I didn't have time to shop before Christmas.

Boxing Day, Dec 26th, has also become part of the Christmas tradition of late. On this day, the MacGregor's all get together and go out to dinner. This year (yesterday) we went to Cullen's upscale grill on Space Center blvd. The company was wonderful and the place is quite lovely, the service was definitely upscale and the bathrooms were awesome. However, the food left something to be desired. For the price I expected my tastebuds to be amazed but it was just so-so on the food. We all had a great time though. Then everyone came over here to our messy, just-had-3-parties looking house but we played guitar hero and blongo ball - Oh that's two other things I got that I forgot about - Penny sent us a Blongo Ball set - a game where you throw these balls on ropes at this goal, and a mini disc golf set from Chris. So anyway, we played games yesterday and generally sat around full from lunch.

Today we're going to see Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler in about an hour and a half and we are all in separate areas enjoying time off and our Christmas gifts. So far it's been a highly enjoyable holiday!

Merry Merry Merry