Merry Christmas!

Please forgive the bullet points. I'm too tired to write coherent paragraphs!

• The weather was awful. Rain, rain, and more rain. Cold rain. The temperature hovered around 38 degrees all day.
• I ended up not getting to bed until about 2:30 am -- cleaning up from the party and all -- and I overslept. We started the present opening party at Mom and Dad's an hour later than we should have.
• My mom loved the gift that my dad gave her. In fact, she loved it so much that she started crying! My poor daddy didn't know what to think. He gave her a Past-Present-Future necklace. I am very glad that she liked it so much. It was sort of a family effort. My sister told us that she wanted it; I found one on sale at a fantastic price -- and went to buy it on Black Friday (which is a huge deal in itself!); Dad paid for it. LOL!
• Christmas dinner at my cousin's house was very nice. She has MS, and because of the MS she has good days and bad days. For the last several years, the family get-togethers have been on bad days. This year was a very good day though, and I could see the person that I remember from years ago. That was a gift in itself.
• The movie tickets that we gave my cousin-in-law were a huge hit. In fact, when he came to say thank you, he told Skeeter, "When I found out you had my name, I was hoping you'd give me movie gift certificates again!" We draw names, and Skeeter had his name two years ago. I felt bad that we gave him a repeat present, but just couldn't think of anything else! I suppose it all worked out! :o)
• Sass got a Dora scooter today, and she's been riding it all over the house since she opened it.
• Spyder got a metal detector, and I can tell he's going to be treasure hunting everywhere. I hope that most of it is outside though!
• Skeeter spent the afternoon trying to repair my sister's computer, which would be tedious and horrifyingly annoying for me, but he loved it.
• Thankfully the weather never got cold enough for the rain to change to sleet or snow. The wind was really strong though, and I was glad to make it home. The poor dogs were very glad to see us. We brought them in immediately, and I heated some chicken broth to pour over their dog food. I like to think that they appreciate the warm food in their tummies on a cold evening.

It was a wonderfully satisfying day with family!