Holiday Pic Explosion

      Yes, the holidays have been over for about a week.  That just makes this post unique, right?  Our Christmas tree is still up, too.  All the other decorations are down, but we haven't gotten to the tree yet.  And poor Flintstone was so sad he actually cried when MacGyver packed away the train.

      Anyway, our holidays were awesome this year.  In keeping with the stragely functional dysfunction of my family, my divorced parents and grown brother, Boo, and my mom's huge german shepard, Scully, all packed into my mom's tiny Kia and drove 17 hours to spend Christmas with us, and it was one of the best Christmases ever.

      Here are six million pictures of the festivities.  They were taken by two different phone cameras and our digital camera.  The differences are rather obvious.

      There was much relaxed galavanting about the house:

Crawling race with Grandpa

Helping Nan with the dishes - which she insisted on doing even though she was a guest

 Bathtime was even more fun than usual with Nan and Uncle Boo:



Four people in the bathroom at once!

Hickory, our Elf on the Shelf, had his last couple antics:

Patriot Elf on my R/C Battle Tank

Submariner Elf

Even our Calendar Owl got into the spirit (with a Gryffindor scarf just like mine!)

 I made an entirely ethical Christmas dinner, which will, if I ever get around to it, get it's very own post on the Ethical Eating page: 

Chipmunk cheeks!

Christmas morning brought much excitement.  The very first present discovered was by far the biggest hit:



Get this ribbon crap off here so I can go for a ride!!!

Punky played Santa, and had no trouble getting the presents behind the tree:

Butts

Punky's new blanket from Grandpa

Books were a big theme this year.  MacGvyer got me a HUGE stack of beautifully bound classics, and everyone else got books, too:

Hitchiker's Guide the the Galaxy Collection!

HUGE stash of Goosebumps from Uncle Boo
(Note Flintstone STILL playing in his car)

I got my traditional ultra-unhealthy Christmas Tree Cakes.  Sadly, I think this is the last year I will allow myself to partake in something this wildly unhealthy/unethical.



Flintstone got some great eco-friendly wooden toys.  The button taped to the floor in the background was so he could turn the train on and off himself.  BIG hit.



There was a lot of cruisin.

Flintstone was able to open his own presents for the most part, and got some adorable new clothes from Nan.

MacGyver got the table saw he has been drooling over for MONTHS.  Flintstone cuddled it.

We spent the next day at the beach at one of the state parks.  It was sunny and beautiful, but the wind off the water made it a little chilly.  Still, it was a blast:

Flintstone's absolute obsession with birds continues unabated.  And he still calls them "fish" in sign language.

Punky built a massive castle.  MacGyver may have helped a little.

We went for a hike down the beach to this beautiful area full of polished downed trees.

A half-way decent picture of Flintstone and me.  I think the last decent pic I have of the two of us is a few months old.

I'm going to keep digging until I topple into this hole head first.

Grandpa, Uncle Boo, MacGyver, and Punky enjoying the wild trees on our hike.

 Mostly, though, the visit was filled with lazy times together and irreverent fun.  For instance the day my mom decided she wanted to sit in the front yard since our backyard is all full of trees and doesn't get much direct sun, and Boo and I invented a new game called Acorn.  We spent at least two hours, probably closer to 3, batting acorns back and forth to see how many volleys we could get.  My mom viewed this as absolutely silly and refused to be involved, insisting that we had better not hit her with any acorns.  That didn't stop her from exclaiming loudly when we reached our highest volley (11).  At various points Punky, MacGvyer, and my dad joined in, too.  But really, it was Boo and my game, and we rocked it.  With many references to the friends episode where they waste a whole day throwing a ball around. 

 

It was an amazing holiday, and a perfect visit.  There wasn't even any bickering!  The only thing that makes me sad is that we didn't get a single picture with all of us in it.

Nan: not pictured because she wanted to stay lounging in the sun next to the wind break.
No idea why Punky is 3 feet from Uncle Boo.
Flintstone was thrilled with having to sit still for two minutes.
And for whatever reason, half of us look really chubby in this picture.
still ...
I love it.