Over

and just like that, Christmas is over. it was low key, but very nice.
snowy, but nice.
we did a christmas movie night at becky's house on saturday night. connie & family left early after one short kids movie about the biblical birth story, then we watched Christmas vacation with my dad. he'd never seen the movie and it was fun to hear him and abby giggling at the physical comedy parts.
we were going to go on a wagon ride to see holiday lights on sunday night, but it was a cold, windy, and snowy day all day sunday so we decided not to make the drive.
i cooked most of the day monday, but took my time about it so it wasn't a stressful thing. then we went to michelle's house. abby was sad that connie & family has decided not to join us on christmas eve any more, but we still had a nice time without them.
abby spent most of the day tracking santa on the norad tracking website so we knew he was in north america getting close around 10pm and hustled home to bed so we wouldn't be in the way.

chrismas morning was a delight for abby. she was spoiled again but santa brought her a talking stuffed parrot that she adores. and the bird says it loves her too. it really is cute and not nearly as annoying as i thought it would be. she brought it to becky's house too and it records 2-3 seconds of things that you speak at it and will play them back so it's very cute when it calls out, "where's josie?" or "NO, Ryan, No!" and "Abby is my best friend!"

we did go to mass at st. johns for the first time since Abby and i last sang before thanksgiving. the music is so uninspired it makes me sad. the adult choir was only 10 people too.

then to becky's house where after a huge dinner and pictures, we opened gifts.
(i'll upload the picture later, i'm on the wrong pc right now.) everyone seemed to like the frames i got them and i'm very pleased about that. the rest of the gifts were for the kids, although becky pulled a package of ground coffee out of her pantry to give to kevin. seemed a bit of an afterthought, but what the heck. i feel good about giving and not at all bothered by not receiving. and i really do mean that.

i feel peaceful today, and happy i still have the rest of the week off of work. going to pick up the house a bit, walk on the treadmill and go make some size exchanges at the mall.