XMAS 2012

Rolled out of bed at 745am. Surprised that no one else was up. Mindy joined me downstairs 30 minutes later. Put breakfast strada in the oven. Still no others awake. Mindy opens the front door in case Dad was outside awaiting the cue. The kids weren’t up until well after 9am. I contemplated doing my run before gifts but opted to wait. Dad showed up around 9am. Shortly thereafter mom was up. Glenn was the last up. By then, we were well into gift opening with the kids.

Kids were quite pleased with their haul. Jacob: ski pants/jacket, soccer ball. Bella: American Girl doll stuff, ski pants/jacket.

Mindy went next: PJs, 2 massage gift certificates w/ Crista, perfume, chocolate truffles, jewelry, photo album, etc.

Jimmy: GoPro3 black edition (sweet!), Vikings white away jersey – Wright.

Mom, Dad, Glenn: candy, gift cards, beer, snacks, etc.

While everyone enjoyed strada, I headed out for a run. Ran 3 miles lovely run – cool, crisp.

Enjoyed strada and OJ after my run. Soon started our ready for Gloria’s. Already approaching noon.
Yikes!
Wore my special Xmas sweater: white Ralph Lauren golf sweater decorated with mini colorful Xmas ornaments. 

Dad& Glenn left to run mom home, actually were meeting Ronald halfway. Not sure their afternoon plans. Mindy invited them to join us at Gloria’s but neither accepted.

Arrived at Gloria’s just after 1pm. We took Eiknarf. She’d be staying there through our HV trip.

Several trips to carry everything inside. As always, celebrating Xmas on the lower level. I took the Honey Baked ham upstairs to slice and place on the platter. Only used about half then put the rest in the fridge.

Brought four beers but only drank one. Tired, plus with Wednesday’s drive to HV, I wanted to be in ship-shape.

Did family Xmas photos. Suggested several poses for multiple cameras. (past years folks looking at different cameras).

Enjoyed appetizers: ham, stuffing, cheese, plain chocolate fudge, meatballs, etc.

Gifts one person at a time. Took about two hours beginning to end. Warm, too. Removed my Xmas sweater.

Played the lottery ticket game. All players brought $5 worth of tickets. Timer set to one minutes. Roll doubles to claim ticket. Whoever has the ticket as time expires wins it. I ended up with 5 tickets.

Jacob played and on at least four occasions had the ticket with 1 second remaining only to lose it to someone on the last second roll. Too funny!

Xmas dessert: red velvet cake, pumpkin pie, another type too. I didn’t eat much.
Loaded our gear for home around 730pm. Said good byes to all. Expecting huge snow storm starting during the overnight. Larry, Jodi referring to it as White Death!

Arrived home around 8pm. Carried in all of our stuff then immediately switched to HV readiness drill despite being ridiculously tired. Chaotic! Decided not to worry too much about the condition of the house. Looked like a bomb went off inside!

Packed for the next 2 hours. Loaded the skis in the Thule too after Mindy suggested we do it that night rather than wait till morning. Good idea, especially given the coming snow storm. Neighbors came over for our long awaited gift exchange.

Chrissy gifted Mindy a mini coach purse. Gifted me a $100 Cameron Mitchell’s card! Wow! Felt kind of bad. We got the neighbors beer. Took care of all the kids too. The exchange was brief. Everyone, including all of them were tired.

Mindy and I headed to bed around 1030pm.