xmas...here and there

first holiday season with our newly pared staff....got to go home at least thru xmas eve, which is when my family always celebrates - well, at least the opening gifts and party-ish side of the holiday...but i had to leave this morning to drive back to michigan to work the evening and weekend night deadline desk duties part...so, it was short and sweet, then back it was, and i am now here on the desk waiting to tone the page 1 fotos...really doesn't feel like xmas, and the wet, brown ground isn't making it look a lot like xmas either...anyway, at least i got to be home with my family at the holiday for part of the time, got to help decorate cookies, see my little kitty-boy - going on 16 years and still kickin! go Kashi go!!!! he's such a sweetie, but sadly, i think he is beginning to forget me some, at least when i first got there, but after the first day, i started getting lots of little nuzzles...or maybe he just realized i was another set of hands from which to elicit back scratches! oh well, doesn't matter, still good to get some love no matter what the reason...

although i have plenty of catch-up to post from the last week or so, i'm posting these now...just cause i feel like it, and i'm bored, and there will likely be nothing to do work-wise for the next couple hours, so i may as well get productive here....

this is what our little family xmas scene looks like to the outside world - you'll have to use your imagination to put me in the scene, as i was, familiarly, the girl behind the camera

except for the morning after before i got ready to drive back - clearly i had not yet had my xmas morning caffeine!

here's my Kashi! cute cute cute

and Mr. Lucky, my parents' cat

they've become really good buddies...well, for the most part that is

so, back to the xmas joyousness, from the inside now...while Mom gets things ready, lights the candles, Dad takes a few pictures of the tree and gifts and us...before we get down to the serious business of tearing our carefully wrapped and decorated boxes apart! this photo thing kinda runs in the family

so, we're opening, and we're having some champagne....a good time is had by all


especially when Dad opens one of my sister's packages....before the holidays, when we were trying to get some gift ideas, my folks gave us more of the what-not-to-get list - no more clothes, no more knick-knacks, trying to cut down on so much stuff - so when pressed they said, 'give us something useful, like a gift certificate to a restaurant, or soap....'

and yes, there you have it, my sister did indeed buy my father a 3-pack of Dial soap for xmas (well, that wasn't all - there were less utilitarian presents exchanged - just in case she reads this and fears i have told the world that she just gave our dad a bar of soap for xmas)...anyway, i was about doubled over laughing - it only got better when he later opened up the Speedstick deodorant!

so, here's the scene in michigan - my little home taste of xmas - thankfully none of it got stolen while i was away! hopefully i'll be home enjoying some of it tonight before the holiday officially ends...

merry christmas!!!