Christmas 2008!

Indeed, Christmas 2008 has come and gone in our small town. I pray everyone had a wonderful holiday and that all continues to go well. For those of us in Central Illinois, it was a progressively chilly day that all began when…

*do-do-do-doooo do-DUM-duh-dooo* My eyes instantly opened. I thought and pondered for a moment… my alarm was sounding. Why? I pondered some more, and asked myself: “What day is it?” My eyes got as big as saucers when I realized IT WAS CHRISTMAS! I rolled over to see my wife sleeping soundly. Crap. I closed my eyes for a couple more hours.

Once my wife and I woke up, it was time to open the gifts from my family who were in Seattle. Thanks to Josh, my best friend since childhood, I am now the proud owner of everything Strong Bad—except for clothes. Every SBE-mail, teen girl squad, and Limozeen music video is sitting nicely in DVD form on my shrine to Strongbadia. Okay fine, so it’s really in my DVD’s-to-watch stack under my bed. Katie Salter, you may envy me now. :D

After opening the goodies from home, my wife’s parents, my wife and I all got ready to head over to my wife’s cousin’s house for Christmas dinner. It was a wonderful event with turkey, coleslaw, and mashed potatoes with an ocean of gravy… but the ultimate food offered were my mother-in-law’s amazing green bean bundles! Imagine, if you will, a pot full of whole green beans simmering on the stove. Now, take about 5 or 6 individual beans, and wrap a nice, thick strip of bacon around it. Put the bundles in a 13 by 9 casserole dish, sprinkle some minced garlic on each bundle, and toss it the oven long enough to cook the bacon. Once they’re done cooking and cooled off a bit, imagine all of the different, delectable tastes in your mouth as you slowly bite down into the bundle of awesomeness. There’s a bit more to it than this, and they are terrible for you… but it’s still so worth it!

After dinner, we all talked for awhile, watched my “movie” of “WFV 2008,” then talked some more. At around 3pm, we all headed back home with grandmother to rendezvous with my brother-in-law and his wife for another round of opening presents. Here’s an amusing anecdote for you:

About a week or two ago, our good friend Melody came to stay with us. She brought along one of our favorite board games called “Rummikub.” Well, she left her copy with us, as she was leaving the area to visit with her family in California during the holidays. Now, my brother-in-law and his wife got home before us. While separating the presents into piles, I saw my brother-in-law tilt one present in particular to one side and intently listened to the sound it made—rather suspicious behavior, eh? A couple minutes later, I picked up a package for Lori and me. While moving it, I heard a very familiar sound as well.

Brett opened up his package first, and whaddaya know… it was RUMMIKUB! When Lori and I opened our copy, the whole family burst into laughter. It was then that Brett admitted that he was upset when he saw Melody’s copy, mistakenly believing it was ours after being told by his mother that he should get it for us. He was relieved to find out just whose copy that was.

That’s about it, for the most part. Over the past couple of days, we have all struggled to find places to store our new gifts; thus, the house still isn’t near as tidy as it was prior to Christmas I’m afraid. We’ll get there one of these days.

I hope everyone out there had a fun and safe holiday! Take care of yourselves and I shall write again soon!

Until next time,
~N.