Christmas in Santa Cruz

I seriously need to get my butt in gear to bring our icy Christmas story to a close. Luckily, it all ended well. Since we were all up way past midnight on Christmas Eve, we all slept in a bit on Christmas morning. I think things got going around 11am as we all slowly migrated towards the living room around the Christmas tree. We spent a couple of hours opening presents and watching Jesse and his two brothers fall right back into their regular routines of horsing around and creating general chaos with their playful teasing.

After presents we had a delicious apple pancake breakfast (as warranted by tradition) and lounged around in our slippers into the afternoon. J pitched in and set the table for the Christmas dinner, coming up with this utensil teepee for our enjoyment.

Friday and Saturday were spent here and there at home and downtown. It was so nice to relax and enjoy spending time with J's brothers and parents. Saturday night we had family friends over for dinner and drinks and were able to catch up on all the days that have flown by in 2008.

Following dinner (and a few drinks) J and Larson started reminiscing about one of their favorite childhood games, Marble Run. They set up the game in the living room and we (nine grown adults) were screaming and jumping as our marbles raced down the track. Luckily, J's brother E knew how to set up sports brackets and we played for at least an hour or two.

I have a couple of videos of the action that I took with my camera, but I can't figure out how to rotate them. I thought about posting the video sideways, but it's kind of annoying. Maybe someday I'll figure it out!