Merry Christmas, everyone!

I am personally extremely happy to be having a quiet and laid-back holiday. Joe and I are funny. We never wait until Christmas to open presents! We opened ours a couple of days ago, the night before Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun! I sat under the tree, opening all these things he got for me. Stuff he knew I'd love. He is so awesome! I am wearing one of the Old Navy half-zip pullovers he got for me right this moment, in fact. I got him a Dremel tool, which made him very excited. "Yay!" he said, when he saw what it was. "Now I can cut stuff up!"

Today has been really relaxed and quiet. The introverted family Christmas! I love it! Joe went to sleep at 4:00 this morning, and I went to bed at 6:00, after a highly anticipated photo-editing and website-redesign session (I am such a geek!). You know, it's still pitch black outside at 6:00am. That doesn't seem right... I woke up briefly around 7:30 and it was like a new world, sunlight pouring through my window and everything. Very strange.

So then, of course, we didn't actually get up until about 12:30 in the afternoon. We called Joe's mom and then my family. Luckily, my family was all in one place (minus a brother and sister in law, but I'll talk to them soon), so Dad's cell phone was just passed around and I told almost the same thing to each person, while hearing their various stories. My younger brother was taken aback that I'd even consider sleeping in so late (on Christmas!) until I explained that we'd opened presents already. "Ohh... Well, okay then," he said after he understood the reasoning behind our madness.

It sounds like everyone is doing really well, which makes me happy. As much as I love my family, and I would love to hang out with them, I think having a quiet Christmas at home is just what I needed this year.

Joe and I contemplated seeing a movie, but that didn't end up happening. Our Christmas meal of the day was courtesy of Jack in the Box, which was open until 4:00pm. We scouted out a bunch of various grocery stores, none of which were open, much to our dismay. So much for cooking!

We did take one of our night drives, like we do from time to time. We set out driving to see if we could find anything that was open. Nothing was, of course, except for two Chinese restaurants and Nation's. We drove pretty far south, just checking out the various cities and Christmas lights, and laughing about some strangely named stores (G.R. Doodlebug, for example), and the crazy jokes we were making about all sorts of different things. We are just crazy together, really, and I find it loads of fun!

After a while, it seemed time to head back toward home. We stopped at the Nation's restaurant that's pretty close to home and got some dinner for take-out. It was surprisingly good. Especially the pumpkin pie!

Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without watching at least part of "A Christmas Story," which we did. God, I love that movie... And we watched the various South Park Christmas specials, which were also on. Earlier in the day, we even chatted with one of our favorite friends from L.A., which made the day all the more merrier.

So, like I said, nice quiet Christmas. Phone calls with friends and family. Driving with my guy. Pumpkin pie. Snuggly kitties.

What more could a girl ask for?

Merry Christmas, everyone! Or Happy Whatever-You-Celebrate! Just take care and have a drink on me. Salut!

~~Meg