I told you that there would be more about Christmas and here it is!
Brad, L and I spent the morning visiting with Brad's Aunt and Uncle and then headed over to my Aunt's house for Christmas dinner. My Aunt Gloria has two very large bulldogs, Hero and Sadie. They are very easy going gentle dogs, but they are as big as L is. We walked in the door and Sadie and L found each other face to face. L was trying hard to back up, but I was in the way and finally Sadie decided to go bother her mom for some scooby snacks and L decided to enter the house.
I find L's relationships with animals so funny. She acted like she was so afraid of Sadie, but later in the day we decided to go outside and air ourselves out and we found Hero.
Being the big daddy, Hero is larger than Sadie (and looks a little bull-doggier), but L could not get enough of him. She would go right up to the fence and try to touch him and talk to him. I just find it so funny that a chain link fence gives L all the confidence she needs.
L did spend more time outside running after K. I was so pleased with how well they played together. I mean, I guess if you count K running and L running after him playing together, but they were both giggling and laughing the whole time. Everytime we'd go somewhere and K was there L would just light up and grin at him. I love cousins!
After playing outside, we had a very wonderful Christmas dinner and a little time for talking and playing.
Brad and cousin R2.
Cousin R2 and L.
My family is very large. There are five kids in my family and five in both my dad and mom's families, so you can imagine that family get-togethers are large things. For many years now we've abandoned exchanging gifts with my dad's family and have opted for a cut-throat ornament exchange instead. We're all very competitive people and it suits us well.
The way it works is that everyone purchases an ornament and wraps it. The ornament goes under the tree, we draw numbers and then we go in number order. When it's your turn you can either open a gift or steal someone else's gift. When your gift gets stolen, you can either open a gift or steal someone else's. After you have had possession of a particular ornament 3 times, then it's yours. After the last present is opened, you keep what you've got. It's a lot of fun and incites a lot of laughter and mock irritation. Most of the ornaments we have came from the family ornament exchange.
There's also a lot of time to sit and talk, take photos, text :o), etc, while people are making their choices and stealing ornaments.
Cousin Eddie using his new phone.
Mary and Mawmaw open the first gift (I think).
Brad and L watching the action.
L and cousin H are the closest in age to one another. Here they are playing with L's new pig.
Cousin R2 had light up Christmas socks. L discovered them while she was standing by the table and decided that she was really interested in those socks. It was very cute!
Mawmaw and cousin R1 opening an ornament.
Cousin R1 really liking the ornament she opened!
It was a great Christmas. L went home and crashed hard from all of the excitement.
Friday was spent visiting friends and family. L got to go to the Pearce house where she got to meet another dog, Max through the glass. Max is a yellow lab (I think) and he is way bigger than L, but through the glass doors she thought he was pretty fantastic. She went to Grandma Bee's house and got to see Uncle Bob and Aunt Donna again. It was a very busy day that turned into an early night in. Poor L was completely wiped out from the week's festivities. Brad and I packed and on Saturday we drove the 22 hours to our home.
Now... we're just glad to be back home. We are still tired from the trip and from all of the fun. Brad worked only a half day today, but tomorrow it's going to be back to reality! In some ways, I'm not sure that I'm ready and in other ways I am so very ready for it to be here.
I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and continues to have a wonderful holiday season. I'll be back next Monday!
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