OK, I've finally got pictures to post!

We had a good Christmas. I think my efforts to make it fun did help; I hope next year will be even better. (I still have some cookies to bake, lol) The boys were happy with everything; they got lots of Legos, Ninja Turtle themed stuff, and the youngers got Thomas and Hot Wheels. Note the lack of anything pink ;-) (a short aside - some have been complaining about how cheap Barbie stuff is and how it breaks and gets lost; well, I think it might be a nice change here to lose or break something pink instead of the usual! Hot Wheels and Ninja Turtle and yes, even Legos, break and get lost too!) No new Muppets this year, but Troyer did get to add to his Herbie/VW collection, plus we restrung a guitar for him and got him an instruction kit with a book and audio CD. He's been begging for guitar lessons for a few years. Chris got some movies from me and an ornament for the tree. His parents were very generous to "us" - they spent a few hundred $ taking his riding mower in to get serviced, and bought him a new recliner. They also gave us a gift card to WalMart. I got a cheese knife. In fact, the cheese knife was the only thing I got to unwrap. Chris gave me a new keyboard for the laptop he passed on to me, but since I knew it was coming, he didn't wrap it. He didn't get the boys anything to give me. Not even a card.

I'll admit, this time of year is hardest for me because his family all gathers and there is lots of laughing and lots of gifts flying and oohing and ahhing, but I sat there with a cheese knife. It is not totally MIL's fault; she doesn't know me well enough to be able to shop and just find things that she knows I would love. She did try in past years, but nothing was ever "right." So I don't blame her for the gift card. But if I still had my mother, we would still go do a family thing at her house (my dad stayed hiding out in Florida, sent up $25 for each of us and called himself done) and she would have found some cute little knicknacks and silly things that I would have loved. She might also have offered to take me out to eat alone, w/o kids or something like that. MIL took Chris out to see the Narnia movie. She didn't ask if I wanted to go. Of course, he is her son, and it is natural for her to favor him over me. But it still hurts to know that I don't have anyone anymore to love me the way she loves him. My Dad behaves toward me and my sisters more like an uncle than a dad. That's the way he is, and I accept him that way, but it still means that at Christmas time the lonliness gets rubbed in.

Here are the pictures:
Christmas Breakfast


Levi's Breakfast


Boys Waiting


A Full Tree


Levi Unwrapping


A Budding Star


Happy Boys