warm christmas thoughts...and what I did today in florida

I LOVE Christmas.....and for all of the cheesy reasons you might think. First, I adore mashed potatoes - and we inevitably eat them several times through the holidays. Second, I am geeky close to my family, and I get an ORGY of visitation rights around this time. This year, of course, we had the gorgeous nephew added into the equation. He is now almost nine months, and babbling up a storm. He knows two words, "hi" and "dada". As we were sitting down eating our "Barefoot Contessa" (okay...frankly, my mother has an UNHEALTHY obsession with Ina Garten and her show BAREFOOT CONTESSA. She now owns all of her cookbooks, and says creepy things about how Ina says to do this or that, or Ina does this this way. Can a mother be brainwashed by a show on the Food Channel???) spaghetti and meatball Christmas Eve dinner, from the end of the table would come a whispered "hi", and then a five minute scream. Yes, the nephew has learned how to scream...and roll. He is thisclose to crawling...but hasn't made the plunge. So, if he wants to get somewhere, he just kind of rolls there. It is adorable.

Santa was very good to me this year, bringing me a new cell phone (thanks to the Verizon-employed brother), an AMC gift-card (that noise you hear is the joy in my heart), and a camera for my computer. I guess I was better this year than I thought I was....oh, and of course, the parents and I made our annual pilgrimage down to visit the Godmother in Florida. We stepped off of the plane into 80-degree humidity. It is fantastic. We have taken our annual Christmas hot tub soak, and tonight had our grilled out hamburgers for Jebus.

All in all, it has been a lovely holiday. On the itinerary for the week is a day trip to Fort Lauderdale and of course a trip to the cinema. Happy Birthday Jebus, and bring on the mashed potatoes!!!

photo credit: http://emeraldbayevents.com
photo credit: http://images.barnesandnoble.com