Merry Christmas!

While I'm sitting here waiting for my sweet potatoes to cook so I can make sweet potato casserole (with pecans, not marshmallows), I thought I would give you a glimpse into our Christmas festivities thus far.

Sunday night, Christmas Eve Eve, we (the three of us and my parents) went to my cousin Vicky's house for dinner and gifts. Here's a shot of Darryl, Amelia, and me with Amelia's first official Christmas present (lots and lots of clothes were in that box!) as well as the Christmas nativity scene from Vicky and Robert; the nativity is supposed to commemorate Amelia's first Christmas:


Christmas Eve, my mom and I had to finish up some shopping. The traffic and crowds really weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. (My mom mentioned that she needed to go to Walmart; fortunately, I was able to persuade her to rethink that, and she decided that Target would suffice.) Darryl cooked a DELICIOUS prime rib on the Green Egg for dinner.

And then the Christmas Miracle happened: Amelia slept for six straight hours! She decided that would be her gift to her mom and dad. :) (I'm sure this was a one-time thing, but hey, we'll take it!)

This morning was lots of fun opening gifts and spending time with family. Amelia, after drinking a big bottle for breakfast, decided she would just snooze through the present-opening festivities:


My favorite gift is this photo collage that Darryl gave me. (Please forgive the Christmas morning hair and PJs.):

Amelia finally decided to wake up after all the adults opened their gifts. The laptop Nana and Papa gave her was obviously a big hit!


And in traditional Christmas fashion at our house, everyone is napping except for Darryl and me. I'm sure the rest of the day will be fairly low key. The rain has delayed Darryl's turkey frying a bit, so who knows when we'll have lunch. We typically do the Thanksgiving fare--maybe a bit pared down--for Christmas since we really don't have dressing and the fixings any other time of year and we love it all so much.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas with the ones you love. Merry Christmas!!