A California Christmas

Uncle S and Aunt R
Cousin "Little Rascal" and his daughter "A"
Froggy the Christmas Fairy was one of the lesser known critters in the barn that night with the baby Jesus.
Sadly, Froggy the Christmas Fairy was overshadowed by the angel Gabriel, and was edited out of the nativity scene.

It seems with all of the excitement over the birth of the baby Jesus, a little Froggy Fairy seemed superfluous. But she still roams the earth in toddler form, swatting people with her wand, laughing maniacally, and running away.

The table was set.

Sissy and Froggy eating chocolate and swinging on the hammock.

The cousins opening presents.

Lance, the Christmas Fairy Dog snoozing the holiday away.

Poor Grandpa J. had a horrible neck ache. I believe he may have strained it trying to catch the Christmas Fairy. So, he wrapped a heating pad and scarf around his neck. The spelunking light was just for effect.

Cousin "C" looking dapper in his suit. Yes, all the women ooooohhhed and ahhhed.
Grandma W and Auntie Heder.

Bring on the food!

Aunt "A" and Uncle "B"

Great Grandma "B". Doesn't she look lovely?

I'm still suffering from post-Christmas exhaustion, so I'll keep this short. Plus, Froggy took a very late nap today and didn't crash into bed until 10:30pm. So we're pooped.

Christmas was wonderful. We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the mountains and Froggy awoke to MANY, MANY, MANY presents under the tree. Grandma "W" made a lovely dinner, and we visited with cousins we hadn't seen in years.

Because I'm obsessed with food, I'll focus on the dinner. We had... ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots and parsnips, creamed spinach, and the most amazing sweet potato biscuits in the world. Oh, and coconut sorbet, peppermint ice cream with hot fudge, coffee, wine, champagne, and cookies. It was a gluttonous and wonderful day. Froggy wanted none of it and ate some cheerios, a stick of cheese and some lentils. Oh well. She was having too much fun playing with Sissy, her cousins and chasing the cats.

Poor Buddy had a miserable holiday. He overdosed on dark chocolate baking chips (my fault) and my dad (the vet) told us to make him vomit with Hydrogen Peroxide. We didn't have any, so I called our neighbor, who RAN down the street to give it to us. It worked and he was fine, but still scary. Then on Christmas day, he begged for too much ham, and too many people complied. He was a very sick pup today. I won't go into the details, but he had a bath, we're steam cleaning our rug, and at every holiday event from here on, he will wear a sign that says, "if you feed me, you will follow me home, and suffer the disgusting repercussions." It was that bad.

Today, the unpacking of Froggy's equipment and presents took the entire day. We also packed up decorations and put the tree out on the curb. I love Christmas, but when it's over, I'm really ready for it to be over. On that cheery note...A late Merry Christmas to you all, and Happy New Year!