My son is the life of the party. Everyone tells us how sweet, precious, smart, and just all around adorable he is. Yes, we know. :)

I've gotten to see several family members today that I haven't seen in a long time. It's so nice to get to see them. It's also nice that all the "kids" (my nephew, niece, and cousin) are now adults and more responsible. There was a time when I worried about the direction they were going, but they seem to be doing okay now. Even the ones who aren't exactly doing great seem to be keeping up appearances.

My mostly teetotaler family finally broke out the alcohol, so I'm drinking a glass of wine right now. Kacey's got a beer. This will make the rest of the evening less blah.

Kacey's been grumpy a good portion of the day. Doing our own Christmas at home by ourselves two days ahead of time made actual Christmas day with the whole family a let down, especially since Kacey didn't even get any gifts today. WE got a couple gifts from my mom directed to both of us, but nothing for him specifically. I felt bad for him. My mom did get less gifts for us this year than usual - not sure why. Maybe it had something to do with the giant check she sent us back in October. Maybe they blew all their money then. But anyway, we might not do that separate Christmas thing again. And if we do, we might save our quiet little family Christmas for after the big family Christmas.

Okay, well, enough for now.

It's Christmas Eve at my sister's house. My sister, my BIL, and my mom are all in the kitchen prepping as much stuff for tomorrow's meal as possible. This meal might give us a heart attack. The sweet potato casserole alone has 6 sticks of butter and 2.5 cups of sugar and then topped with marshmallows. The dining room table is currently being used to house all the cookies and candy my mom made. It pretty much covers the whole table. And now she's making 4 pies for tomorrow. I've already eaten way too many sweets, though we decided that the "Texas Ranger" cookies are appropriate for breakfast, since they are made with Rice Krispies, oatmeal, and walnuts (and butter, and sugar, and maybe some flour...but heck, those are all present at breakfast, too, right? Sugar is in jam, people put butter on toast, etc.).

Kacey has hidden himself in the back to play Dragon Age on my BIL's XBox, and my older nephew is watching him. My grandma, my cousin and my younger nephew are playing Phase 10. My dad is watching any scrap of football he can find. (He doesn't care what team it is, he will watch it.) Ansel is napping. Though, in truth, my dad is napping, too. He's just napping with football in front of him. Try to change the channel and he'll complain that he wasn't asleep, just "resting his eyes."

I, not caring to be yet a 4th person in the kitchen, not wanting to watch football, play Phase 10 or watch Kacey play Dragon Age, have resorted to scouring the internet. (I tried reading, but too many voices around to distract me from the words. Pretty sure I am going to need to re-read those few pages that I tried to read a few minutes ago.) I have learned from the internet that it is snowing in most every part of Texas except here, where it's just rainy and miserable. I do miss snow sometimes. I'd like Ansel to get a chance to play in it.

The rain made the last 30 minutes of our trip here yesterday pretty stressful. If it wasn't for the tail lights of the car in front of us, we wouldn't have known where the road was. The rain was that heavy. Our bags got wet from being in the bed of the Subaru that we had to put half of our clothes in the dryer upon arriving.

I am thankful that my BIL has wireless internet. If you want to call or text us, though, you can't. We don't get cellular service our here. Kind of weird, if you ask me.

Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or Season's Greetings, whichever you prefer. I am by no means one of those types who MUST say/hear "Merry Christmas". I think it's nice to be respectful of all cultures.

I'll probably bored enough to post again soon.