Well Christmas has come and gone. This year ours was rather different as it was the first year we had our family Christmas get-together at our house (we used to have it at G-Ma’s and the last few years at Corey’s mom’s). That also means it was the first year we didn’t stay with my mom Christmas-Eve, a tradition I do sort of miss. Finally, I had a nasty head-cold all through Christmas and Corey had to have her gal-bladder removed that Monday.
So sort of different but nonetheless we had a great time, gave (and received) some nice gifts, and spent some great time with family. Of note, Eric is still better than me at chess. The last time I recall us playing was in 7th grade. He won then and also on Saturday. Was a fantastic game, though! As usual, we had our Mexican-style Christmas of sorts with enchiladas and rice being on the menu. Of course, G-Ma’s brownies made an appearance (yay!) too. Christmas day at my mom’s was also very fun. Bobbi, Clay, Brandon and Sam (their new baby) came over as well and my mom made a great dinner complete with turkey and ham.
Gift wise, I came away with some really nice and thoughtful gifts. As usual, I replenished my supply of sweet pants and a sleep shirt, along with smell good stuff (thanks Lanna!). Corey’s Mom, Tom, and Ern all gave me some older albums on vinyl. So much so I can’t remember all of what I have, but I do recall some of them I’m particularly excited about hearing. I already played the first side of a Tijuana Brass album and it sounds awesome (it has a fantastic version of Girl from Ipanema).
My mom and Paul gave me a really unique gift too. I had been wanting to have a Kickstarter project setup for Victim Cache’s latest album, but it’s taking longer than we planned to get that going. So my mom made this cool fake Kickstarter print-out that made it look like a receipt to making a pledge (it’s an IOU) and also gave me a bunch of exotic beer. Some of it I was going to drink for when we get the project off the ground – but there was one bottle (apparently somewhat expensive) that I’m going to save for the conclusion of the project, be it successful or otherwise. I thought that was really clever since she knows I’m a beer snob – or rather, the only beer I seem to like is that which is hard to obtain, more expensive, or both.
All in all a good Christmas. Camden made out like a bandit too and, in fact, he still has some gifts ready to go. We opted to wait for some of them just due to Corey’s surgery but I think he will be quite surprised when he comes home!