Christmas

Our Christmas holiday was VERY busy. I'd say it officially kicked off on the 20th with our work Christmas party. It was held at the local country club and the food was awesome. There is traditionally a spoof video and this year was the best yet. They had several employees spoof "The Office" episode of the dundees. It was hilarious and complete with the same opening except with scenes from around our office and Greenville. Another great thing about the Christmas party this year was paid babysitting at the CC. Greta was just down the hall from us so we got a nice break from watching her but she was close enough by to check on. She did really well - I didn't have to go in there once. I was surprised how well she did with strangers and even fell asleep without Mommy.

Next on our agenda was Christmas Eve festivities with Graham's moms family. We ate at his Great Aunts house (I took Hot Fruit & Lima Beans). The tradition is to exchange names and purchase a $25 present and then bring a gag gift. We took cash, a beard trimmer, and a tomagatchi 4.5 (all requested) as our presents and received earrings (me), a circuit city gift card (Graham), and a Learning Puppy (Greta). We didn't stay for the gag gift exchange as it was Greta's bedtime but our present (a Spice Girls CD I got free with purchase at VS) was fought over quite a bit.

Christmas Morning Graham's immediate family ate breakfast at our house and then opened presents. We had tons of food and tons of gifts. Our big present was the stroller I posted about here. I was also pleased to get 2 Ann Taylor Loft giftcards. Christmas dinner was next door at Graham's sisters house and we ate like kings. Graham and I fixed a pot roast in our new crockpot as our old one had just died.

Graham and I spent the next few days painting our living room. Trying to paint with a little baby in the house is not easy. It did not go near as quickly as previous paint jobs mainly because the majority of the time only one of us was working.

The weekend was spent in Hoschton with Momma and Daddy and celebrating Christmas with them. We had a wonderful relaxing weekend. It was very low key which was nice after all the hoopla earlier in the week. We ate friday evening at our FAVORITE mexican restaurant. Greta was so well behaved. She sat in her carseat very happily. Saturday evening we opened gifts and then had a lovely dinner of heavy hors d'oeuvres which were very tasty. Greta received a lot of books from her Mimi and Grandaddy which we have been enjoying reading. I also received another Ann Taylor Loft giftcard and a giftcard to our local spa.

We returned home Sunday evening to a messy house (the painting still wasn't done). We finished up painting on Monday and started to put stuff back together. We're still working on that as we wanted to change the layout of the room but it has proven rather difficult given the type of couch we have and the shape of the room. I'm trying out the new arrangement for a while to see how I like it.