holiday cheer

Figured it was about time I put up some photos from Christmas. (See, Mom, I do listen to you occasionally!) As usual, we spent Christmas Eve with The Map Man's family (and as usual, I didn't get any photos worth sharing!, although we had a lovely time). And also as usual, Christmas day was a quiet affair at our house, with just the four of us enjoying each other's company and good cheer.






Of course, Santa came ('cuz those boys, they're just so darned GOOD!), and brought J the Spanish/English dictionary he's been wanting, amongst other things.





And Zoo Boy got the Roboraptor he asked for, and has had a totally blast tormenting the family (and the cats) with it. (Even I have to admit, it's pretty cool....)












The Map Man took the boys out back sledding for awhile...








J got the "mini luge" he'd been asking for, but this picture was cuter than the picture of him using it, so there.








We played a rousing game of Qwirkle. (THANKS, Kyra, Dave and Fluffy!!! We LOVE it, great gift!!)







And The Map Man snapped a photo of how I spent my day (and pretty much every day since....) flopped out by a roaring fire reading. That's pretty much where you'll find me for the next month at least....

(Oh, I know several of you will want to know what I'm reading -- Harry Potter -- yes, I know, I'm behind the times on that one. I'm finding it OK, not as good as some of the books I became obsessed with during last year's post-holiday down time, but good enough to keep reading. I'm in the middle of book 4 right now.)


A family photo at my parents' house the day after Christmas. Sadly, The Man closed his eyes just as my sis-in-law K snapped the photo. Drat. But it's all we've got, so here it is anyway!










J rifles through the contents of a big bin of K'nex building toys that my sister and family gave him and Zoo Boy. (They've been building with them ever since.)

My parents' living room is a tight venue, especially packed with 15 of us, so the vast majority of my photos contained at least one person who would rather not be pictured on my blog. So I'm not able to share a lot of the fun from that day. But trust me, it was fun!

Zoo Boy with his Great Grandma.

And with that, we survived another Christmas! HOORAY!!!!

Let the recovering commence.... (You know where you can find me, turn right at the fireplace, 1st chair on the left....)