Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

This past Christmas weekend was about as busy as it could get for me. Here's a time line of how it went.

Thursday, Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve)
Got up that morning and cleaned up around the house a bit before heading out for a long day. First we dropped off my dad's car at the airport around 10:30 so that he would have a vehicle to get home with. He's been in NJ for work and stays with us when he comes in town. Then we headed over to the Wilson's (my in-laws) for some quality time with them and Brent and Robin
(my brother and sister in law). B&R live in Nashville and we don't get to hang with them as much as we like to so we wanted to get in as much time with them as we could.

Brent and Robin

We met up and went to lunch at Red Robin for a good burger and then were going to try and make a movie. We had intended to try and make a movie but the movie we wanted to see, Avatar, didn't start until 3:25 and with it being a 160 min movie, we wouldn't make our next scheduled event. Much to our disappointment we didn't get to see the movie and thus headed back to the house for a little down time and some family time on the Wii.

Our next scheduled event was Christmas Eve dinner at the Everitts. This is Lloyd's side of the family, so it's a pretty large get together. There we caught up on all the happenings of the past year, ate a great meal, and enjoyed a "Dirty Santa" gift exchange. I came away with a Best Buy gift card and Mrs. McGoo game away with some wine and wine glasses. So all in all a fun filled night with a lot of family.

Here are a few clips from the event:


Here is Robin, Mrs. McGoo, and Kelsey.


Here is everyone getting in on that spread.

From there we headed home for what was a well needed night of sleep. (I couldn't sleep, so I blogged)

Friday, Dec. 25 (Christmas Day)
The Mrs. and I woke up around 8am to go out to the living room and open gifts with each other. I must say she does pretty well in the gift department. Just some of the things she got me were: A book on farts called "Farts: A Spotters Guide", some camping supplies, some dress shoes, and a few other things.

From there we headed over to the Wilson's for a immediate family gift exchange. There we each sit in a large circle and watch everyone open on gift and then move on to the next person. This way we extend the fun out a little more than everyone just starting in a free-for-all and missing out on people's expressions. This is the area of my life that I feel really blessed as my in-laws really spoil us. It is not everyday that someone says their in-laws are the best, but this is truly the case....they ROCK...

...and Roll.

After opening gifts with them and having a brunch, we said our goodbyes to Brent and Robin as they headed off to Nashville and we headed back to our house for an early dinner with my brother Kevin, his family, and my father.

My Dad, Me, and Kevin tending to the cooker

I, with a little help, deep fried a turkey for dinner and wifey made some delicious sides. Once we were through eating, we gathered near the Christmas tree and opened up presents with each other. My favorite part is definitely watching my niece, Grace, open her gifts.

Here is Grace holding up one of her many presents

After that we got back in the car and headed back over to the Wilson's for a Wii Tennis Tourney where after I laid the smack down on Kelsey (Sis-in-law), Mrs. McGoo, and Cindy (Mom-in-law), Lloyd (father-in-law) defended the Wilson honor by beating me 2 games out of 3, thus restoring order in the Wilson/McGoo chain of command.

After picking on Kelsey for as long as I could...cause I love doing it...we headed back home for some much needed rest and relaxation.

All in all it was a fun filled two days of Christmas cheer! I'm so thankful to have a wonderful family to share the celebration of Chistmas with.

Stay tuned for the Sat/Sun activities...