smacky and bucky

We had a nice weekend, and between the driving, catching up, and opening gifts, we found a few moments of peace and quiet to catch our breaths.

Friday evening was just me, wife, and my folks, so about 30 minutes after we arrived we were in a restaurant drinking margaritas and ordering steaks. Margaritas and red meat! It's a party!

My sis and her family arrived a few hours later and since the forecast was still rather iffy, we decided to open gifts that night, since we might be running to our cars later. (Thankfully the weather was just a cold, stinging rain and no ice.) My youngest nephew got a transformer that transforms from a truck to a huge robot fist holding a gun. It doesn't just transform from a truck into a gun, but a huge ROBOT FIST holding a gun. Oh, and it shoots Nerf darts that whistle when they fly. He also got a helicopter that flies by remote control. Those were both pretty freaking cool.

Everyone made out pretty well. Laura gave me an early surprise: a three-color striped scarf she knit for me without me ever seeing her work on somehow.

Saturday we went to visit my 92-year-old grandmother in the morning, then L and I grabbed a last-minute gift and a quiet lunch. Saturday night we had a Christmas dinner for 14 people, which was as crazy as you can imagine 14 family members in one place being.

Sunday morning we had brunch before getting on the road. On the ride back we listened to David Sedaris reading Holidays on Ice to keep the good mood going and make the miles go faster. Last night I wrapped gifts for sister-in-law and brother-in-law that I have to mail this morning (as soon as I finish typing this).

One week of work left in 2007, then I'm taking off the rest into 2008!