I’ve been busy. Mom noted that I hadn’t updated my LJ since Christmas Eve. So while judiang‘s taking a short nap (to get rid of a suspected MSG headache), I’ll see if I can get caught up on my shenanigans.

Christmas Day: Amy called me at 7:30am to inform me that everyone was sitting around drinking coffee, but nothing else was happening. They would continue to do so until I got there. So I got ready and headed next door. They gave me a cup of hot cocoa (yummy) and when I was done, we went into the living room to open our stockings. Santa really likes us – he brings us stockings even though Amy & I are in our 30s and Rachel will soon be joining us. Heh.

After we examined our stocking goodies (nice things like 1GB flash drives & bath salts & socks were in ’em) we had breakfast. Amy & Dad made eggs & sausage, mom had baked a sour dough coffee cake. Everything was yummy.

It was now time to open presents. I handed out presents one or two at a time to folks and we went in order of youngest to oldest. It took a couple of hours and once again, we won at Christmas. 🙂 I got lots of nice things – Treehouse, Fluxx & Monty Python Fluxx from the girls (all Looney Labs games and mucho fun). Shirts, a nice outfit, Logitech wireless mouse, new barcode reader (my old one went kaput), books, and other things from the parental units. I got the girls a record player that hooks to a computer for ripping albums into MP3s. Mom got a JBL external speaker system for her new iPod Nano (well, new for her – it’s the 2nd gen I gave her for her birthday a few weeks ago). It’s red like her Nano & her Shuffle. 🙂 Dad got some books he’d asked for and some toys which he hadn’t. Heh.

We eventually had Christmas dinner – chicken casserole, green beans, cottage cheese, cranberry sauce (from the can), etc. It was very yummy as usual. Later we had apple pie & ice cream for dessert. (It was a free apple pie from Market Day. I’ve been lucky – this is the second free pie I’ve gotten from ’em. And like the first one, it was wonderful.) Mom, the girls, and I played Monty Python Fluxx and enjoyed ourselves. Rachel won the first game and I won the second. We switched to pinochle with me & Amy as partners. We kicked butt. Twice. Heh.

There was a lovely sunset that day, so I tried to get some photos of it. I haven’t downloaded ’em yet to see how they turned out. If they turned out OK, I’ll post ’em later. We spent the end of the evening planning for the Anderson gathering the following day.

Boxing Day: The plan was that Rachel and I would go to Kroger in the morning to get a few key items. I was called in the morning to say that we needed to head out even earlier than planned. No problemo. I headed next door and daddy made me an Egg McMikey sammich to-go. I took the last of the apple juice with me as my to-go beverage and Rachel drove us to Kroger. We got a number of things required, but not everything. So I recommended the Dollar Tree (which I needed to go to) for some things and Meijer for the rest. The only thing we were unable to find was a “live” centerpiece that was on sale. (Everything else Christmassy was on sale – even at the Dollar Tree.)

We got the house ready & food prepared. In lieu of an expensive “live” centerpiece, I trimmed a few pieces of mom’s holly shrubs to serve as decoration. A few bright red ornaments were added, too. It was minimal, which made it look rather nice. I also had a few things I was preparing for the dinner. I molded my cheeseball onto my tree-shaped plate. Made some Reuben dip. Baked some corndog minis.

When 2pm arrived, we all sat in the living room awaiting family. And they began to pop in. Surprisingly, Uncle Doug was first. Eventually, all of the Andersons were present – for the first time in years. Even my second cousin Eric and his boy (Little Eric) came. Yay! It was lovely to see everyone. Food was consumed, presents were exchanged, Apples to Apples was played. We had a nice day.

Folks were gone by 6:30, which is when we all collapsed. Heh. We cleaned up the place and vegged for the rest of the evening. Mom & I discovered that the frozen fruit dish she made was very tasty when mixed with vodka and Sprite.

Saturday: We shopped on Saturday. After a lunch of leftovers, we headed to Piqua for the mall. There were some exchanges made and new things purchased. I got a couple of small cutting sheets (about the size of a half sheet of paper and nearly as thin) and some silicone egg poachers. We did a booze run on the way home, too. Needed more gin, apparently. Heh.

Sunday: Our main task was to play pinochle and get mom’s card quota back up. (Amy & I still won. Then later, Rachel & I won.) We also played a couple of rounds of Treehouse. That evening, we reconvened at my house for “dinner & a movie.” Although I had originally planned to cook something, that would have required me going somewhere, which precluded playing cards. So we wound up ordering pizza from the local. We started off by watching Amy’s photos from Guatemala. Our first attempt at hooking her laptop up to my TV didn’t work, but putting the photos on CD and playing ’em in my DVD player did work. They looked gorgeous on my TV. Our movie for the evening was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Monday: Our last day with the girls. *sniff* We went to Tipp City for a day of shopping & eating. Actually, we started out by eating. We went to Harrisons, a nice restaurant in Tipp. I had their French onion soup and their chicken salad sandwich on sourdough. I also had an amaretto sour. Tasty tasty. We then visited nearly all of the antique stores in Tipp looking for a broach for Rachel’s new purse. (Long story – maybe I’ll tell it some day.) We wound up with 3 good choices for it. Mom bought one of ’em, while Rachel bought the others.

Monday evening was a time of card playing (mom & I won) and the girls’ packing. We finished up the day by sitting around and watching the Rachel Maddow show. Heh.

Today: This morning, I set my alarm to get next door before 7:30am. The girls wanted to get off by 8am – they did pretty well & were on the road by 8:15am. I then spent time straightening up my house since my brain has been AWOL and I had confused the 30th with Wednesday. I thought Judi was arriving Wednesday, the 30th. Well, the 30th – but that’s Tuesday. Heh. And then my brain went even more AWOL while I explained to the folks that I was head out around 1:30 to pick up Judi, whose flight gets in at 12:58pm. *sigh* Thankfully they corrected me.

In further brain-fartness, I got confused at the airport and went in the wrong lane, thus missing out on parking. I went through the gauntlet again and parked. Judi managed to find me, somehow. And thankfully her luggage arrived as well. (Yay- she’s moving again!) We headed to the Bookery so we could get our DWMs and then to Jeet India for our Indian Fud. Yum. On the way home, I stopped at Kroger for a few essentials. A call to the folks got a few essentials for them as well. I wound up calling Judi, who was resting in the car, because I’d left my bags in the car & wondered if she’d bring some to me. She did. Yay!

We’ve got no real concrete plans for the rest of today. We might go see a movie. We might stay in. Tomorrow we head to Aunt Becky’s for cards & Chinese Fud. *slaps forehead* I forgot to see what sort of sparkling wine dad wanted for the toast tomorrow night. Well, either tonight or tomorrow, Judi and I will be oot & aboot again, so we could get some then. Hooray for the Holidays!