Sunday, January 7, 2007
Colorado Christmas, Part 2
Okay, so despite the gray, drizzly weather that my mood is currently mimicking, I will try to pull myself up from the weight of the Lazies and post another round of Christmas photos for you, as I'm sure you're anxiously waiting with bated breath. (Drip goes the rain, drip goes the sarcasm.)Ahem.
Okay, so we left off with my fun family cocktail reception which was followed with, believe it or not, more food in the form of pizza and beer with me, Huz, my sister KK and her boyfriend Steven.
The next day was Christmas Eve and we spent most of the day lazing around my Mom's house and wrapping presents, which takes a really long time if you obey the airport and keep all of your gifts unwrapped. It started to snow that day and so I sent Huz out for a last minute gift purchase while I continued to wrap, wrap, wrap.
And then I took a break and caught a snowflake, in more ways than one.
The next day was Christmas and we had a nice, new blanket of snow. Perfect!
We had four households to visit that day, starting out with my Mom's house where we got presents and a lovely breakfast. She surprised all of us with iPod Shuffles. I'm excited to use mine at the gym, which I really need to start visiting in fervor as all of that holiday gluttony is catching up with me.
Me and my sis before opening presents.
The next stop was Huz's Dad's house where his Mom, 2 brothers, sister and her family were gathered. It started off slowly, but when the kids got there and the wrapping paper began to fly, it was the usual Christmas chaos.
Then it was to my Dad's house. Right before dusk our house in the mountains always had this spectacular coloring that made you feel like you had stepped into a watercolor painting. My Dad has a word for it, but I can never remember it. Something elfish or gnomish, I think. Here are some shots during this brief time - notice how pink everything looks.
Here's my Dad, who I was supposed to have lunch with later in the week but couldn't because of a second big snow storm. I was sorry to have missed out on some one-on-one time with him, that's for sure. He gave Huz and me the coolest gifts this year. I got Photoshop Elements 5.0, a book on digital photography, and a really cool old camera that's a double lens reflex. I can't wait to try it out and will hopefully be able to in the photography class I'm taking this semester. He got Huz a great reference cookbook (written by a chef that happens to date the former professor of a friend of ours) and a book on writing his dissertation, which was perfect.
My sister, Jax, who I took out for lunch later in the week. I'm so glad we got this time together because I realized just how talented and unique she is and how much I respect and miss her.
She made us all unique bottles with clay baked on them this year. They're really outstanding. Mine was a flower tree with mirror shards and Huz's is a fruit tree with bulbous marble fruits (I'll post pictures of them later). My grandma's was one of the best.
My sweet grandma, who I went up to see a few days after Christmas. We had a lovely morning together chatting and she shared an old scrapbook with me that chronicled my Dad's childhood accomplishments. She also honored me with an heirloom - her and grandpa's old wedding set. I was greatly touched by this and will treasure the ring for years to come.
The last stop of the night was my Aunt Jenny's house where my Mom's side of the family was all gathered. We had our annual white elephant gift exchange and the hysterical laughing that always accompanies it (thank God for my asthma inhaler).
Here's one of the white elephant gifts - a huge, fake pink diamond that my uncle Steve is so fashionably demonstrating.
There were other funny ones, like a tin elephant watering can (that I stole at the end of the game because I actually liked it) and some obnoxious ornaments. But the best one of all had to be the one I chose. My number was called so I walked up to the tree and selected the biggest box there was (because size does matter) and began to unwrap it under the watchful eyes of my family. The wrapping came off to reveal a brand new Wii. No way! Surely this was a mistake as it's supposed to be gag gifts! I opened the box and saw the styrofoam packaging and cords sticking out. What luck! The room filled with celebration over my awesome luck and with disbelief at such a great gift (as well as with plots to steal it from me in the next round). But, alas, no one was going to steal this gift from me, no. Because I did some further investigating and pulled the cords out to see not a lovely new gaming machine, but instead a lowly ten pound bag of potatoes and a potato masher. The sound level increased ten fold with hysterical laughter. What fun my family is!
Stay tuned for my next installment of photos, where you will see the famous Victoria Loves Snow dance. |
