Christmas Eve 2013
Sandy, Maria, Kero
This morning Seanie and I had brunch at Bill's Cafe with Sandy, Maria, and Kero - all former Branham-ites. In the years after high school, we've scattered to different corners of the country - Sandy's currently out in South Carolina finishing up her PhD and Maria's a lawyer down in Southern California. It's amazing how much those guys have accomplished! But it was great to see them again - I don't think I'd seen either of them since Kero's wedding last year.
Seanie got his hair trimmed because he was tired of his mom and me badgering him about it.
When I got home, I wrapped up Christmas presents for my family while Seanie puttered about doing his own projects. We watched some TV and just relaxed, enjoying the fact that we both had some time off.
In the evening we went over to Mom's for Christmas dinner. She'd cooked up roast beef, which my uncle carved up masterfully (as he always does). My uncle brought down a jello salad (Someday, I'm going to write a post dedicated to this holiday tradition) and a St. Honore cake for dessert. There was plenty to eat as we all gathered around the table.
Merry Christmas!
After dinner, Mom showed off photos from her trip to Germany earlier this month on her tablet. She went to the Christmas markets in Munich and took pictures of all the decorations and the food, and visited some art museums and historic sites. It was interesting to actually hear the stories in the pictures; normally, after a trip, she'll throw all her photos up on Facebook without captions or labels and the next time I see her, she demands, "So did you look at my pictures?" and I have to reply, "I tried, Mom, but without context it was just a random collection of photos," and she pouts.
When she finished, we opened presents. My uncle got Seanie and I an enormous bag of chocolates which will keep us stocked for a month or two, unless we go on a binge and devour them all while watching cartoons. (It happens.) Mom brought us gingerbread and candies from Germany, and my brother found DVDs of the 90s X-Men cartoon and the new Beatles' Live at the BBC album. Very cool! For Seanie, mom got him his annual giraffe (he's rapidly amassing a little pile of giraffe plush toys) and a cute tie with tiny giraffes on it. I thought it was adorable, but I'm not sure he'll wear it.
Tomorrow Mom wants to go see a movie, so I think we'll end up seeing either Frozen or The Hobbit - whichever one ends up fitting our schedule.