Merry Christmas To All, and To All A Good Night

I can't believe that another Christmas has passed by. Technically it isn't over for us yet, since we'll be celebrating in Iowa this coming weekend, but it always goes by so quickly. I actually like getting to spread it out over a couple of weeks!

Thursday afternoon when I got off work we left for Villa Grove and got there just after 5:00. Brenda made Poor Man's soup for supper and it was tasty! We watched Despicable Me, which was really cute! Then we watched Charlie Brown and The Grinch (the cartoon version). Although, I had chugged some NyQuil before we started Charlie Brown and it took effect pretty quickly so I only saw bits and pieces of those movies.

Friday morning Jacob, Kent and I went out shopping. Kent always does his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. We just tagged along to help out! It was actually a lot of fun, and the stores we went to really weren't too bad. We had lunch at Hickory River Smokehouse. First time I've eaten there, and oh man...watch out Famous Dave's, you have competition!

We headed back to the house for an afternoon of movies and wrapping. Kent started a fire and then it started snowing! It was seriously the perfect Christmas Eve. Normally I despise snow (as we all know), but it's different at Christmas time. It was beautiful.

That afternoon we watched The Nativity Story (first time I watched the whole thing and it was amazing), Alastair Sim Christmas Carol (Kent's favorite) and of course National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. That one has been a Christmas Eve tradition for years.

It's also Christmas Eve tradition at the Elam's to have a "junk food dinner"! It's pretty much appetizers...chips and dip, wings, BBQ meatballs, etc. Gotta love it!

After that we headed to the Christmas Eve Service at church. It was a very nice service too. Then it was back to the house and off to bed to await Santa's arrival.

Christmas morning we slept in and Jacob and I watched part of A Christmas Story before getting up. A family friend came to visit for a bit. I talked to mom and dad for a bit while he was there. Usually we have brunch...but we ate it closer to noon! I LOVE those cinnamon rolls.

After that it was present time!

A few gifts:

30 Rock for Jacob

A puzzle for Kent

Sarah Palin's new book for Brenda

Bath and Body Works for me!

And a surprise gift! We got a Bluray player!!! (Plus Toy Story 3...our first Bluray)

All of the gifts were wonderful and it was fun getting to spend time with family. One of Jacob's grandma's came over for Christmas dinner that evening and then we watched Toy Story 3 that night.

Yesterday we went to church, had lunch ( a VERY yummy pot roast) and headed home around 2:30. Wish the weekend didn't end so quickly, but I'm looking forward to being Iowa bound on Thursday!