Continuing Christmas

I was so exhausted last night I didn't really go into much detail about anything but the new baby bump.  Since Z is pretty content playing with his new toys, I will do so now.

So we celebrated our immediate family Christmas this year for the first time ever somewhere else than Mom and Dad's house.  We spent it at Jon and Marcy's new home which is larger and better accommodates my ever-growing family.  I arrived after work, just in time for dinner.  We had our recent yet continuing tradition of a breakfast themed meal.  There was a large ham, a sausage and bacon egg bake, cheesy hash browns and caramel monkey bread.  I was a little bummed that Jessica didn't make her savory monkey bread, but I'm going to get the recipe from her and make it sometime this week for Matt and Angela and myself.  There was an assortment of juices and milk to accompany the meal.  Chloe was being a little goofball all through dinner, little cutie.
Afterward we all went downstairs to open presents.  Overall, I think everybody did pretty well.  It was very chaotic having 9 adults, a little kid and 2 babies yelling and unwrapping and carrying on.  From what I saw, I know that Jon and Aaron each got a fire-pit.  Terri and Aaron got a blu-ray player.  Each of the couples got a few coupley gifts from Mom and Dad.  All the ladies got cool glass brick Christmas light things...Terri's and Marcy's were filled with seashells as well as lights, and Jess's and mine had bows to make them look like a wrapped gift.  Marcy got a big shoe rack (to keep her organized, hah...the girl's more organized than an organizing specialist).  Little Chloe and babies Ella and Zidane got a lot of new books from my folks.   Matt got some funny t-shirts.  Chloe got tons of princess paraphernalia.  Mom and Dad got a George Foreman grill.  That's about the extent of what I saw in the madness.
I personally received 15 neckties from Terri and Aaron for my tie rug.  From Jon and Marcy I got a bottle of my favorite perfume (Fantasy, which I've been out of for months!).  From Jessica and Matt I got a variety of flavored coffees, including Southern Comfort and Jack Daniels.  I got a string of lights that have cool paper lantern covers on each of them; I think Terri and Jess picked them out.  I got 3 t-shirt dresses and a sweet new tank top.  I got the laser level I wanted from dad and a 1/2 hour massage certificate from my mom.  Most of the stuff I got obviously doesn't amount to monetarily what the others received but my mom and dad told me that my main gift is new tires for my car.  YAY!!!  I'm totally stoked that I'm getting new tires...it's one less expense to worry about and I'll be able to relax a little bit when I'm driving in the snow.  Right now, it's always a white-knuckled chore worrying about sliding off the road.
After presents and whatnot pretty much everyone decided to head home...I ended up going to Matt and Angela's to exchange gifts with them.  They gave me a eucalyptus mint candle, a really neat handbag made from recycled plastic, some body cream that smells amazing and a little wooden mind puzzle.  Altogether, I had a pretty awesome Christmas and New Year's is just around the corner.