Dear Readers, I know that you have been neglected for the past two days. I have been so good about posting daily through December so far, and then on the most exciting days of the month (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), I fail. Tragic flaw, indeed.

Well, what do you want to know? During the day on Christmas Eve, I spent a lot of the time cleaning and doing laundry, in preparation for going out of town for several days. In the evening, Jeff and I went over to Debbie and Jerry's house, where we had Christmas celebration with the Feely family. It was a nice and tasty dinner, as well as a fun time with the relatives (Rob and Candace and Olaf and Rosalee were there, of course). I was excited, in particular, about the Hello Kitty tote bag that Debbie MADE for me, as well as a precious pastel blue Hello Kitty lanyard. I'll be sporting the Hello Kitty bling when I go back to the classroom in January!!!

Christmas morning, we did stocking with Debbie and Jerry, and then sped south to LA area to see my family, stopping in Gorman along the way to exchange gifts and Christmas greetings with Josh and Laurel. [Shout out to Laurel, just because I love her!!!] We arrived at my parents house, where the whole clan was assembled: Mom and Dad, Dan and Jen, Mike, Mia and Tim. We stood about for a while, then opened presents. A few highlights:
-Dad cried when Mia and Tim gave him a guitar.
-Mike and I gave each other identical presents: copies of After the Ice, by Steve Mithen. My adik and I are birds of a feather.
-Mike received a book on Egyptian hieroglyphics, but was unable to explain how he was planning to fit Egyptology into his current plans of shrimp farming and market analysis.
-Jeff received duplicates of Halo novels and the fourth season of Family Guy. That's the result of posting his wish list on his blog.
-Mum gave all the girls handmade felted purses. Authentic Willow's Cottage merchandise. Order yours now, deliverable some time in the summer!!!
The we had a family dinner, with a guest named Dorothy, and it was tasty and involved all sorts of questionable dinner-table topics, including politics and tapeworms. Mike, true to form, nabbed and hid the salmon before dinner even started. Bless his heart.

Today, it was lowkey. We had a late breakfast at IHOP, went to Borders (to spent those gift certificates) and Best Buy in Manhattan Beach, ate at Red Sesame, then moseyed to Pier 1 and Barnes and Noble, still in Manhattan Beach. It was nice to see a lot of the family. We are obviously addicted to books.