Yep, Christmas is over.
But in the wise words of Sesame Street, I say, why not save some Christmas cheer?
It may be one month and one day past Christmas, but hey! Mindy and I still have our tree up, complete with rotting cranberries and all, so that means it must still be Christmas, right?
Ok, let's be honest here.
Christmas is long gone. But the good news is that we've made a new discovery! Did you know that there are like 5 national holidays every day? Plenty of reasons to celebrate and keep the holiday glee going! I mean, this week alone has been complete with National Beer Can Day, National Belly Laugh Day, and my personal favorite, National Cockroach Race Day. True story. Would I make this stuff up?
So, Mindy and I have made it our mission to bring a little joy to this world each day, by celebrating each and every holiday. You're welcome.
For instance, I bet you didn't know that Sunday, the 23rd was National Pie Day. If only we had spread the word faster, you could've been doing this too:
Alas, sometimes, the holidays bring conflict. For instance, when you purchase a slice of cake on a day solely devoted to pie. Oops.
But back to the true matter at hand: Christmas. And to update you on the goings-on of my December, I've prepared a special photographic tribute to the most wonderful time of the year. Enjoy!
It all began with the annual grandkids picture. As you can see, there is one of us missing! That's right, Jess couldn't make it up to Washington, which was sad. But we still saved room for her in the picture for future photo-shopping endeavors!
Then, it was off to the dinner table for some delicious Christmas dinner! It was here that I gleaned photographic evidence of a disturbing event.
Yes, it's true. Grandma is indeed sitting down at the Christmas dinner table. Take a good look at this picture, because this may never happen again. Now if only we can get Grandpa to take a seat next year...unlikely, but it could be possible.
Despite all this, 5 minutes later, Grandma and Grandpa were back hard at work making lefse, so that everyone could enjoy...
...This!
As is tradition, I commenced to bother people to take pictures with me during dinner:
My Dad...
And Derek....Wow. I bet these people are super glad they got to sit next to me while enjoying their dinner.
And of course, had to take a commemorative picture with the gravy boat to note the 4 year anniversary of the momentous day when we discovered that the plate and boat are actually connected (this one's for you, Jess!).
We stuffed ourselves silly (refer to Lindsay in below photo for proof), full of lefse and scalloped corn and made our way over to church for the candlelight service.
Got to see Bekah, which was fantastic as always!
And again, saved some room for Jessica next to the Christmas tree :)
And what a surprise when we found....
Candy in a bowl next to the baby Jesus?! God is good!
Went back to Grandma and Grandpa's where I found the perfect seating arrangement for opening Christmas presents!
Steven wasn't too high on that though. I can't imagine why...
So, since Brian had already claimed the comfy chair,
I was demoted to my new seat on the floor,
And the presents commenced!
Tony gave me a sideways glance (Sorry, Tony, I don't know why this photo won't turn upright! I mean,...that's totally on purpose. I meant to do that),
Grandma and Grandpa laughed,
And Lindsay got some new ideas for Dad's future mustache grooming inspiration!
So, I know you all want to know, what was my favorite gift? Well, let's be honest here. Can anything really beat out these super cool headbands Grandma and Grandpa bought us?
Ok. Maybe Lindsay's shirt. Maybe.
And I was pretty excited about my new cuddle buddy, Cedric!
Along with health insurance, a swimming pool, and a new plan for my life, "somebody to love" also made it onto my Christmas list this year. My parents had the right idea; this guy's THE BEST! And he smells like lavender.
Starving from our 2 hour excursion from food, we dove into the cookies!
Well, some of us did.
And I guess that pretty much capped off the night!
PS. Did I mention that that was all Christmas Eve? Yep, it's not over yet, cause it's still time for...
CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!
Where somehow, Mom and Grandma unintentionally dressed up like each other for church.
Lindsay wanted to get in on the look-alike fun too, but she obviously did not get the memo that Christmas 2010 is red, zip-up vest day.
Grandma and Grandpa came over that afternoon to play some fun games with us!
If you don't believe me that these games were fun, then just take a gander at this photo:
Does that face not spell F-U-N?
We also had Grandma and Grandpa try out some games on my parents' new Kinect for XBOX, which I think they enjoyed!
If they didn't enjoy them, well, it's beyond me, because can I just say that I'm kind of in love with the Kinect? Dance Central might be my new favorite thing since like...hmm, Denise Austin? And if you know me at all, then that's really saying something.
And last but not least, the Gibbon Family Christmas!!!
Ok, guys, this is kind of embarrassing, but I regret to admit that I kind of neglected my camera-wielding duties that night. I mean, I only took 2 measly pictures! 2. What was wrong with me?! I must've been sick or something. Or just too busy chatting with everyone :)
Nonetheless, I got to see my beautiful cousins, which was awesome,...
And eat WAY too much pie and sukiyaki! Which was also awesome. Until I realized that the capacity of my stomach is not 5 tons and therefore, cannot hold that much beef, pie, and yam noodles. So full.
All in all, when I look back at the past month, this is what I have to say.
I love my family.
I love my friends.
I love food.
I love games.
And most importantly, I love Jesus.
Which explains why the month of December is so completely wonderful. God is good. That's the truth :)
