Christmas

Charlie was up to greet the dawn, and take pictures

I slept restlessly, awakened by Charlie at 8 am shaking me and saying "I can't wait any longer!" I tumbled out of bed and onto the couch and mug of coffee-in-hand we opened all of our presents. Family presents are always so much fun. There is a subtlety of humor, a special thoughtfulness, gifts that are more than just things. Mom sent some great photos from her parent's younger days for our family photo wall. My grandfather has so many brothers and sisters that they had separate photo sittings for the boys and girls! We got a great photo of our niece Sienna, lovely clothes and awesome jewelry, movies and music, tidbits from Italy, and so many more wonderful things.

jelly

My gift from Charlie was a type of blown glass art that I swooned over on an Hawaii trip years ago. He found a local gallery that carried them and I am now the proud owner of a moon jelly. It's sitting on top of my computer desk, illuminated in the darkness of the room. While in the Sydney aquarium I mentioned that if I ever had a fancy fish tank it would only be for globed jellyfish, and he remembered!

Our friends fed us well at dinner tonight (thanks Andrew and Kristie!) and we played Rock Band until my foot hurt in a good way. I'm going to steal one more gingerbread man and go up to bed. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!