Merry Christmas!

We celebrated the four days of Christmas this year. Now that it is all over, I can look back and think it was a success. There were a few moments in there when I just wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep a little longer. I'm really glad I didn't!

We started our holiday celebrations at my parents' house on Saturday. The Watts Family Christmas was a good time. I'm still amazed at how we all fit into my parents' living room; but I do love the coziness of the experience! I also really like the time to spend with my sisters and my parents. It's not often you can get all six of us in one place!

Of course, every family gathering has its casualties. This year poor Cathy was the victim of a monkey to the forehead. She had recovered by Christmas day though, so all is well.

Next up on the Christmas Countdown was the Barrett Family Christmas. This year we had Steve's Dad, Anne, Shayna, Dick, and Shane all over to our house for brunch. I love brunch. There's just something about fruit, eggs, coffee cake and orange juice that just makes me happy.

We were visited by the Red Power Ranger for most of the day, which was very entertaining. Steve also got to use his foosball table with someone other than his talentless wife. Although I don't think he was much more forgiving to Shane.

That celebration capped off nicely with a Bears win over Green Bay. I'll just leave it at that. You can fill in your own Green Bay joke.

Christmas Eve took us to the City (that's right... all the way to Chicago!). We picked up Steve's Mom and met our friend Kurt and his girlfriend, Amanda, for dinner. What says Christmas Eve better than endless plates of meat. Fogo de Chao was awesome even with my ever shrinking belly. They also have the best ginger ale, which isn't actually ginger ale but something very similar only better. I don't remember the name, so you will just have to go to a Brazilian restaurant or store and ask for ginger ale.

Christmas Morning was nice and quiet at the Barrett Compound. I made coffee cake; Breyer and Steve relaxed; it was a very nice morning. We also realized that next year at that time we would probably be doing the same thing, except it would be after a morning filled with opening presents and Santa amazement. We spent Christmas evening at my aunt and uncle's house in McHenry. The Unger Family Christmas is always exciting. This year, the Carlson's got a Wii, so there was much video game playing. I think they even broke a glass while bowling.

So that is the Christmas update. I know this reads like a Christmas letter, so I put all of the pictures first. If you have actually read to here, thank you. You would think a journalist could keep these entries a bit shorter and more to the point. However, I'm a bit wordy and can't always distinguish between which details are necessary and which aren't.