December 27th and all is quiet in the house. The cats and kitten are all sleeping and hubby is back to work. I sit here and relish my final day off before heading back to all that is work -- 4am wake-up calls, useless and mind-slushing questions, etc, etc.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day came and went. To me, it feels like it never happened. I am only reminded that it ever occurred when I enter my living room and see the tree and the bags of presents that were brought home from the various get-togethers. Both days were uneventful and pretty much the same old, same old. Christmas Eve was at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house. We arrived at 6:45pm with Chris' parents, grandfather and sister & family close behind. We greeted, distributed our gifts to their respective piles, brought out the appetizers, chatted and watched "A Christmas Story" while eating dinner (ham, asparagus, cole slaw, potatoes, rolls). Then, just when I thought my 6-year-old niece was going to literally explode with excitement, the gift opening began. This process takes several hours because we all sit in a circle and take turns opening one gift at a time. Oh, and part of the "fun" is trying to figure out what the gift is by the "elf name" on the gift tag. For example, Chris got the "Serenity" DVD - the gift tag read "from The Serene Elf". Cute, huh? Not. Anyway, my father-in-law thinks this is great fun, the rest of us are tired of it. After gifts, my in-laws with the kids were in a rush to get home because they still needed to do "the Santa thing" and they had to pick up some gifts that they had hidden at someone else's house. So, dessert and coffee was rushed through with everyone standing in the kitchen and then off they went. The rest of us hung out a bit more and by midnight we were on the road home. Round One done.

Christmas morning, Chris and I did the gift thing which lasted all of 10 minutes since we really don't get more than 1 or 2 things for each other. I got him 2 tickets to a Philly Flyers hockey game in March, a baseball cap that reads "I'd Rather Be in My Garage" and the "Serenity" DVD with accompanying companion book. Oops, he got the DVD from his Mom. Damn. My stupid MIL calls a week before Christmas to ask him what he wants after I already sent her a list with about 20 things on it for him. I was pissed. He said that she was feeling guilty for not calling him about his foot problem. Whatever. Anyway, I must have been a good girl this year or else Chris was a bad boy. He got me a flat panel monitor for my computer, a Sunbeam Hot Tea Maker (it's like a coffee maker except it brews tea instead) and a beautiful sapphire and diamond ring. Now, this is a big deal because I wear no jewelry except for my wedding band and a watch. Occasionally, when I get dressed up or if we are going out for the evening somewhere special, I will wear my engagement ring/wedding band set. That's it. I do not wear earrings, necklaces, bracelets or other rings. I just don't feel comfortable wearing it. But, lately, I have mentioned that I would probably not mind wearing a nice ring on my right hand. So, lo and behold, my first ever fancy, real-jewelry-store piece of jewelry. (Just in case you're wondering, my wedding set came from JCPenney -- it was all he/we could afford at the time.)

The rest of Christmas Day was spent at my parents' house along with my brother and sister-in-law. No kids on either side, so it was a relatively quiet day. Mom, of course, spent 90% of the day in the kitchen. Why she spends so much time making so much food for 6 people is beyond me. Then, it took an hour for her to clean the whole mess up because she couldn't relax until all the food was "put away" which automatically led right into "just let me wash these few pots". We finally got to the gifts and all were happy with the choices picked out for them. Then, dessert and coffee. Bro and sis-in-law were the 1st to leave because they were "exhausted" from having her family at their house for Christmas Eve dinner. We hung out a bit longer until I started getting the evil looks from Chris and we headed home. Round Two done.

We both had off from work yesterday and decided to be lazy all day. Chris' sister was supposed to stop over so he could hook up her new XM Satellite Radio in her car. She never called or stopped by. My parents stopped over for an hour or so to visit and "see our tree". My Dad has this thing where he likes to see everyone's Christmas trees. They stayed until 3:00 then headed back home to let the dog out and then went to visit my grandparents (Mom's parents). My grandmother is "hit or miss" when it comes to visitors so my mom doesn't push it about my brother and I coming along. She's 83 and not doing well mentally. Apparently, she never got out of bed on Christmas Day and missed dinner at my aunt's house. My grandfather went without her. Sad. But, that's a whole other story. After Mom & Dad left, we headed out to rent some movies. That is always a struggle. We never want to see the same movies. We ended up with "Four Brothers" and "Mr & Mrs Smith". Both were surprisingly good. Dinner at Applebees was in-between shows.

Food choices were "I ate what I wanted in reasonable portions". I slacked alot with the water intake and exercise which most likely contributed to the 1.5 lb gain for the week.

So, I will relish my final day off from work and get some household stuff done -- run to the grocery store, return the DVD's to Blockbuster, finish up some laundry, straighten up the house and maybe even cook dinner. I also have a few more tv shows on tape in the VCR that I need to watch before the new episodes start in January. Oh, and I took the cat to the vet for his annual checkup this morning.

The pictures I took for the holiday are still in the camera and need to be uploaded to my computer. As soon as I do it, I'll post some pics from the festivities.

Oh, and, the biopsy from Chris' mole removal on the 12th came back benign. That was an early Christmas present to him from the doctor. Also, Lucy (the kitten) is recovering well. We had to take her back on Friday afternoon because she picked up an upper respiratory infection and was coughing. She's doing well with the antibiotic and is about 99% back to her normal self.

Christmas 2005 is in the history books.

Bring on New Year 2006!