My Christmas Day

We had a nice, quiet Christmas at home. We slept late--we went to the 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service at church, which didn't get out until 12:20 a.m. Then, we had to count the offering, which took awhile because of various clerical errors.

We ate our meal around 12:15 p.m. and opened presents afterwards. We didn't have a lot of presents this year. Jessie got a lot of free or nearly-free stuff that I've collected over the year, including stuff from conferences (the Grace Hopper Celebration had a lot of loot, like a Google and a Microsoft t-shirt) and underwear from Victoria's Secret that I had free coupons for. I even reused Victoria's Secret bags and tissue paper to wrap the presents. Frank asked if I would spend money on Christmas next year, after I have a job. It depends on how many conferences I go to and how much free stuff I get.

Mom gave me some socks that I had bought earlier this month. When I unwrapped them, Mom asked if I liked them. I acted disappointed. "Well, I wouldn't have picked these out for myself, but they're okay." I said the same thing about the Hallmark ornament I got--"Tuxedo & Snowball". I've collected all of the ornaments in that series featuring a penguin and a polar bear.

Christian had his first taste of turkey, which he said tasted like goose. That didn't go over well with Mom because she hates goose. She dropped her fork. Jessie tried to explain to him that wasn't a compliment. He said, "German goose!"

Christian says that Sydney walks like a German soldier--kicking her front feet out. When I relayed the message to Dad, Dad said, "Do German soldiers prance?"

Sydney looked around for laps to sit on. She tried out my lap, but I am wearing zippy pants, which she doesn't like, so she left quickly. She tried out Christian's lap for awhile (and she looked pissed about it the whole time), but he moved too much, so she left. She came back to my lap eventually, but she still doesn't like the pants, so she didn't stick around.

Everyone took too-long naps after we opened presents. When we woke up, it was time for supper and dessert, which we didn't have after dinner. And, then, there was more discussion and laughter and good times had by all.