You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Here is the pic of Justin that graced our Christmas cards this year. If you haven't gotten one yet, that's because I didn't order enough cards the first or second time around, and am currently waiting for my third shipment. Next year, I'll be able to save myself a boatload of $$ and only have to do one order. 2nd-day air shipping charges can kill you.

Tonight we had our annual crew x-mas party. The past few years I have had this dinner at my house but this year I asked Jodi to host which she graciously did. Her house looked great, it was all decorated for the holidays and was very festive. She cooked a lot of food and desserts, and everyone brought something as well. I made rigatoni with chicken in a roasted red pepper sauce. KJR made shrimp dumplings. Please be sure to check out KJR's blog and vote for which dish you think was best (rigatoni!). He said he was going to be posting a poll along with pictures of the food we cooked.

KJR also busted on Ali most of the evening, for many things, but one in particular was because she had never seen (or heard of) one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, A Christmas Story. Dinner was a really good time, due in part to the red wine that was served. I have not laughed that hard in a while :) . After dinner, Ali was forced to sit through this movie, since Jodi's boyfriend, Lou Z., had a copy at his house. If you haven't seen this movie, please don't admit it here, but you should be able to watch it at any time during the day on Christmas Eve on your local TBS station.

Abby J, you were missed!

Maggie and Pop babysat for Justin this evening. He loves our Christmas tree now that it is decorated, and Chris's Christmas village. He has also learned how to high-5, which is awesome. It is so cute to say to him, "high-5 me!" and he puts his hand up and hits mine with it. Just amazing.

Pudge is doing pretty well. She still seeks attention sometimes, but for the most part she behaves okay. And she still licks her paws, but it's less than before and I try to give her allergy meds a couple times each day. She's sleeping on the couch in here right now. Somehow, she knows this is the only couch she is allowed on - and since labs tend to shed a lot, this particular couch belongs only to her.

Tomorrow is our annual Cousin's Christmas Party. This tradition was started by my cousin Cathy and me, wow - a long time ago, maybe 7 years? - so that we could all see each other over the holidays. Nowadays, we all see each other on Christmas Eve, but we have kept up with the tradition of the cousin's party. In recent years, it has been hosted at a different person's house each time, and this year it is Caren & Jason's turn. It always turns out to be a fun night, usually with a story or two to tell afterwards..."You could be French!" :)