Christmas 2009

Christmas this year turned out to be nice and fun, despite a change in plans. We had originally planned on going to my grandparents' house in Virginia for Christmas, but when my grandmother came down with shingles after Thanksgiving, we had to rethink our plans. After lots of varying opinions from doctors, we decided that it just wasn't worth the risk for our baby girl or for my dad with his "bum heart." So my dad, mom, and Rachel came down to Charleston to spend Christmas with us and our billions of Christmas trees.

We had a good time. We had a big pot of homemade noodle soup for Christmas Eve, went to the Christmas Eve service at Redeemer, then came home and had a white elephant type gag-gift exchange. It was pretty hilarious, especially with this year's newest and most coveted gag gift: a set of "nun-chuks" (the handles are actually shaped like nuns).

Rachel managed to survive the suspense of waiting until Christmas morning to open presents, and we all got a pretty good stash.

Me pouting because I got coal in my stocking.

Rachel trying on her brand new vest right over her pj's.

Cy and what might have been his favorite Christmas gift, the Simple Human plastic grocery bag holder. He was installing it in the kitchen mere minutes after opening it. . .

Mom and her pashmina/shawl thingy that she was afraid made her look like some old Mexican lady. . .
Dad acting like Uncle Gary so that none of us would miss him. (scary)

We invited Frank and Andrea over for Christmas dinner, and we had quite the smorgasbord of food: roast beef, cheesy potatoes, several veggies, pasta salad, mandarin orange salad, a pound cake and various cookies for dessert.

The day after Christmas, we went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Most of us thought it was pretty awesome. The rest of our time with family was spent watching movies, playing Wii, and we got to go see the lights at the James Island Park.

After the family went home, Cy snapped into go-mode and began dismantling rooms and furniture and hauling stuff around to start getting the baby's room ready. If it was up to him, he'd have the whole room painted, decorated, and ready in a day or two, with all of our baby stuff purchased. He is super excited about our baby girl (we both are).

Speaking of baby girl, I think she might have scored the most presents of anyone at Christmas. :)

We had a great holiday and we are now looking forward to a great year in 2010!