Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. We've had a lovely, low key day. This morning we were up early to open gifts. Last year was our final Santa year- the big guy fell along with the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy. The stockings were still stuffed this year, though. Some things never change. Later we went to Meme and Poppy's house for some lasagna, the traditional Christmas Day food.



This is the monster tree that nearly killed me. Next year- smaller family room tree!




Here's a shot of Olivia lighting the candles on the Menorah. Brad actually made latkes tonight for dinner. Happy ChristmaHanukkah!

Tomorrow: Charlie's surgery.

Celebrity Sighting

We had dinner tonight with Gene Hackman (actor) and Byron Leftwich (injured Jaguars quarterback). Well, we were at the same restaurant, eating dinner at the same time. Brad's business dinner holiday party was at an exclusive spot in Jax Beach. We were mingling on the patio when somebody pointed out the celebs. What fun!

Flakes

It was not snowing today. Actually, the weather was very warm, but our house was full of Flakes anyway. We hosted the annual Flakes Family Christmas celebration, and it was a wonderful success. The food was great, the entertainment was great (Audrey's DVD), and the company was great. I'll write more and post pictures as soon as possible.

Ouch!

Poor Uncle Ned has broken his ankle. He was playing hockey when some other players smashed him into the boards. OUCH! Get well soon, Uncle Ned!

Surgery is on Tuesday. We'll all have our fingers crossed for you all day long.

We spent most of the day at the Jaguar game. We beat the Colts 44 to 17. There were a lot of Colts fans at the game. They were happy for about one play, then they got really quiet. Here's a song we heard some Jags fans singing to Colts fans:

M I C (See you real soon)
K E Y (Why? Because we beat you!)
C O L T S

The holidays are here!

The big news this weekend: the Gators are going to the National Championship game on January 8th. As soon as Brad found out, he started planning the party. That's right, there's a party at our house for the game! Also, the Jaguars AND the Islanders won this weekend. I guess that makes it just about perfect for Brad.

This is B and O making a pie together on Thanksgiving. They worked really hard on it. It was pretty yummy, too.

I never showed you a picture of the finished living room. Here it is with one of our undecorated holiday trees.

My parents gave us this enormous tree. It was a huge amount of work to get it up. I complained. Brad said that it was like childbirth- afterwards I'd be happy and forget the pain. We'll see. I'll post pictures of the decorated trees when they're more finished.

See you next week!