Christmas Day 2010

I grew up with Christmas being a very mellow day. We all hung out at home and played with our presents. Now, Christmas is somewhat of a stressful day for me. We have so many places to go and so few hours in the day to get there. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing all of our family on Christmas, I just wish I didn't have to stress about getting to each place at a certain time. I just want to enjoy the day like I used to. I'm sure things will change once we have some kids of our own.

Speaking of kids...we don't have any, so we get to sleep in on Christmas Day. But this was our first Christmas with Pumpkin, so we were excited to wake up and open gifts with her.

One TV channel broadcast a video of a yule log burning with Christmas music playing in the background. It set the scene for our wonderful Christmas morning. As I mentioned before, Pumpkin has been eyeing her stocking for weeks. I had put her presents inside (unwrapped), so we decided to just give her the stocking and let her rip it open to find her presents. She was so happy!

For Christmas breakfast, I decided to make German pancakes, a newly acquired recipe. Problem is, I made a bad mistake. The skillet I used had a handle. I had to let it heat up in the oven for 20 minutes or so. I took it out of the oven to add the batter. The handle was turned a little toward me, so I grabbed it to turn it away. Oops, forgot it was scolding hot! I had gripped the whole handle with my bare hand and burned it badly. I don't think I've even been that burnt before. The rest of the morning was spent researching how to treat a semi-burn. The internet conflicts itself a lot. Coat the burn in honey. Don't coat the burn in honey. Etc. The pain finally subsided as I took the largest dose of ibuprofen I've ever had. I made sure I stayed stocked on it all day because I didn't want to feel that pain ever again!

After breakfast, we hurried over to Skyler's brother's house for brunch. His brother's family, his sister's family, and his mom were all over there. I was too full to eat much, but had a fun time hanging out with everyone.

After a few hours, we drove over to Skyler's dad's house for dinner. I overindulged myself in chips & dips and other good food. This is the off season for me. I might as well give myself a reason to get back in shape in January.

Not sure who got the weighted hula hoop for Christmas, but it was fun entertainment for everyone watching. I was so surprised to see how well Skyler's sister can hula hoop. I was even more surprised to see how horrible I am at hula hooping.

After the night winded down, we headed over to my parent's house, who live just a street over from Skyler's dad. It's pretty cool having our families live so close to each other, so we can see all of them on the holidays. That makes Christmas a success!