Anyone else working on Christmas Eve?

Hi again. I am writing this on Christmas Eve, from work! We were required to work a half day today. It's really quite ridiculous. I drove a half hour to get here and work four hours and then turn around drive a half hour back home. We are located in a large office complex made up of about 8 or 10 buildings and we are the ONLY one with cars in the parking lot today! Ah well, what can you do (besides go skiing in Tahoe, which is what the boss is doing today)?

We had Brownmas yesterday and it was just wonderful. On Brownmas Eve (Saturday night)I ended up letting the boys open one present, which was their Wii. Everett was completely shocked and very excited. He had NO idea they were getting one -- probably because I told them there was no way we were getting one. But the Wii was the only thing Scott asked for for Christmas, so I caved. We opened most of the other presents Sunday, but left one each to open on Christmas morning. We were lazy all day, except for the time it took to cook dinner (prime rib, yorkshire pudding [a success again], roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes).

The boys are home today playing the Wii and Guild Wars (Everett's new computer game) and have probably not noticed yet that I am not there. Just kidding. Scott knows I am gone because I woke him up before I left. I was grumpy that I had to be up and wanted someone else to be up and grumpy with me.

I will post a few pictures from Brownmas on Flickr later, so look for those. I will be missing my family today and tomorrow. Please know that I love you all very much!

It's Brownmas time again!

Hello again!

As usual, it has been way too long since my last post. Sorry!

We are all well and ready for Christmas. Some of you may remember that we celebrate Brownmas now, which is actually a few days before Christmas. It falls on whatever day suits us best. It was going to be Saturday, December 22, this year, but Ev has a wrestling tournament that day. It looks like instead we will have it on Sunday (although the boys are trying to convince me to let them open everything Saturday night).

Our friends Julio and Fabienne invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them and their 16 year old daughter, Morgane. I am looking forward to that. They are a lot of fun and we really enjoy hanging out with them.

Other than Christmas Eve, it looked like nothing special was going to happen this year for the holidays, but that changed last night. We found out yesterday that my sister, Margaret, is going to fly my nephews, Cody and Zach, and their step-brother, Austin, to Michigan after Christmas to spend time with my folks and my sister, Lisa, and her family. So we decided to fly Ev up there too and got him a ticket last night. He leaves on December 27 and comes home January 1. I am glad he is going, but I am jealous. He is going to have a lot of fun!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your families. Hug them all tight and give them lots of kisses under the mistletoe!

Love to you all!