Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I truly enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere at Mom and Dad's and wish that I could have ignored the snow falling outside - which really was quite pretty, except that I knew I had to drive through Sardine Canyon and said snow would put a crimp into that plan. Mom's beautiful Christmas tree.
Russ brought his family over to enjoy some of Mom's soups. AJ and Zach were busy playing their new games on whatever systems they have.

Maya enjoyed her markers.

After everyone had enjoyed their dinner, Mom, Dad, and I went to Russ's house to see what Santa had brought them.

Our budding artist.

Zach enjoyed showing his pool table.

AJ's dog and puppy - no, they are not real, but they sure do look it.

For whatever reason, Maya sat on my lap for quite awhile. It's not really like her, at least with me, but it sure is nice when it happens.

Showing off her big candy cane.

And the big gift for the family was their Wii. I've never been big on video game systems, but I think I could really get into this one, especially with the Wii fit and you can get Rock Band for it now.

And then Mom and I drove home in this (Russ and Dad went to see Valkyrie - which I think I'm going to have to see if for no other reason than it was filmed in Berlin):

The next day, I decided since semis had to have chains on their tires I wasn't brave enough to drive through the Canyon. Fortunately, Build A Bear covered my shifts. We took advantage and went to a movie ourselves. We saw Marley and Me. It really was cute, but I hated the fact that I cried in the theater. Don't get me wrong, I can and do frequently, cry at the drop of a hat, but until this year I had never cried in the theater. And, now I have twice. First with Happy Valley and now this movie. But I would still recommend it.