Merry Christmas Abner!

We were invited to dinner at a friend's place for Christmas Eve. Being snowed in has meant we have to be very crafty about how we get around these days to all of the Christmas festivities. But when someone offers to make a roast beef dinner for you on Christmas Eve (with Yorkshire pudding no less) - you accept that offer and get yourself to the table no matter what. We opted to snowshoe to the skytrain station and wait over 20 minutes for a train that had no guarantee of getting us to our destination. Once aboard though it was smooth sailing. The meal and the company were well worth the effort of trudging through the snow with an 18 lb baby on my back.

As for Christmas morning, we got up at a somewhat respectable hour of 6:15 am and wasted no time in diving into the gifts.

I had carefully chosen a number of items to give to Abner including cute little bath squirters, some books, clothes, puzzles, a push car and some new baby legs. All in all, a good haul for her first Christmas.

To our surprise, her favorite gift came in the form of a baby doll from our friends the Netos. Once the giftwrap came off, she only had eyes for her new dolly.

My favorite gift was Abner's beautiful new stocking which was handmade by Grandma. Everyone in the family has a personalized stocking. You may be born into or marry into my family, but you're not truly part of the family until you have your own stocking made by my mom.

We even managed to find the time to pose for a family photo amid all the gift-opening carnage.

After the gifts were opened and breakfast was consumed, we hopped on the skytrain again and headed out to White Rock to spend some quality time with the fam. No snowshoes this time, but I did load TDSH down with a backpack filled with all of the gifts for our family.

Thank goodness for family members with good snow tires! My brother was able to pick us up and take us back to his place where TDSH and I got our first taste of Guitar Hero before heading the rest of the way to Grandma and Grandpa's place. Incidentally, do not ever buy Guitar Hero for me...I would never stop playing it. Poor Abner would grow up knowing all the lyrics to Sweet Home Alabama, American Woman, Eye of the Tiger, and No Sleep Till Brooklyn.

We had a great day visiting with the family. My mom prepared what had to be the tastiest turkey ever and everyone gave very thoughtful, generous gifts (which TDSH kindly carted back home like the good sherpa...I mean husband that he is).

The most memorable moment of the day was probably when my nephew opened the moose-shaped, whole wheat pasta I gave him. Note to self: Kids like toys. Not food.

The second most memorable moment was probably the following conversation between me and my brother while discussing the candied citrus peels I had given everyone:

My brother: What fruits are in there?
Me: Two grapefruits, three oranges, and two limes.
My brother: There are limes in there?
Me: No. There are two grapefruits, three oranges and two limes.
My brother: You mean lemons.
Me: Yeah. That's what I said.