Christmas 2010

A Christmas post in March? Better late than never I suppose. I'm looking at the pictures that were taken on Christmas and they are very few in number. I only took some after Santa came. I think I was having a battery crisis. My camera eats batteries like M&M's.

So, you can see our tree and the load of presents that was underneath. They didn't all belong to us remember, we live with my parents and my two brothers. We were represented well enough though.

The big gift this year for all four of us? We all got iPhones! The best part about that? They were FREEEEEEE!!!! Oh ya! We needed to update our phone plan, but we were waiting for a good deal to come around. Jeff caught wind that one day only, Best Buy would be giving away free iPhones 3's with new accounts or resigning contracts. This wasn't advertised by Best Buy though, it was just circulating as a rumor. They only had a limited amount so we had to get there early, you never know who else reads obscure tech blogs in the 3C. I made Jeff call in the morning to confirm the rumor and that we could indeed get 4. The answer was yes to both questions, so we threw some clothes on and were in the car on our way.

Jeff and I used ours as soon as we got them and the girls were quite jealous. The main things they wanted for Christmas were cell phones. We were asked, "If they were free, then why didn't you get us one too?" We had reasons and they reluctantly accepted them, some more bitterly than others...(cough, Lindsay, cough)

When I wrapped them they were each put into different shaped and sized boxes. I was going to do my best to keep them surprised. Christmas morning came and they picked other presents to open first. I wondered who would get to their phone first. Lindsay was the lucky winner.

I was relieved because I wasn't sure how well she'd take it to see Abbey get an iPhone and her box was a different shape, so surely hers couldn't be one too, and that's not fair Abbey gets everything, nobody loves me, everyone loves Abbey, I hate Christmas, and crying up to her room. I don't really think that would happen, but I was preparing for the worst. Lindsay does have a hard time being the youngest and second born you see, bless her heart. She's really a sweet girl I promise.

However when she opened it there was some excitement, but not enough to satisfy my need for the dramatics. Just to clarify, Lindsay was excited and very grateful, she just doesn't get all crazy excited. It's more subdued, a little too subdues for my tastes. They get that from Jeff, they really do come by it honestly.

Abbey saw Lindsay get a phone and her demeanor changed to soooo laid back. She knew she was getting one too and directly picked up the one that was hers. Despite my attempts at trickery she saw right through them, dang. She opened it to even less fan fair and I was annoyed. Again, it's Jeff's fault. I told them that was simply not acceptable and I better see some jumping up and down, yelling, praising, running around, hyperventilating, and just plain revelry going on or I'm taking them back! They performed a most righteous hootenanny. Christmas could carry on.

There ya go, the rest was typical. We ate holiday food. We saw Jeff's family. We had Christmas Eve at my aunt Janice's house, at which we had the traditional tacos and ice cream sundaes. We hung out longer than other guests and watched the Grinch.

It was also the last time I saw my Grandma. She died a couple weeks later. I got to see her smile. I got to hug her and rub her back. I could hear her voice when she spoke with me and other people at the party. She laughed and got excited during the white elephant, she won a sweater fuzz getter thingy. She hugged and kissed my girls and gave them each a Christmas present. They each got a 5$ McDonald's card, a total Grandma Brinkerhoff classic gift. A big sacrifice too, she didn't have much money to spend. We knew she was getting near the end, but it just came so fast. I'm glad I have those last detailed memories of her.

Alright, here's the few pictures that I do have. I just can't do a post without pictures. Even if there are only two.