today is Christmas (nothing like stating the obvious). santa came last night and left a few stockings upon the little tree my mom sets up every year. although, mom got the tree out of storage and left it in its box, and technically kiana set it up this year.
the family gathered yesterday for a meal and to exchange presents. we all rolled into parkston by early morning of the 24th. and we all slept upstairs. slumber party! it's amazing how the five of us slept in our attic for years, let alone when you add a few more bodies. but we managed to have a bed (or at least a foam mattress) for everyone. it got really warm up there, which never happens. kendra and i didn't sleep very well, waking up at random times.
then i was officially woken up by libby. the little child started moving around and somehow discovered krissa's toy accordion.
use your imagination to figure out what came next...
i open my eyes to see the child leaning against the bed looking somehow innocent while holding the accordion and trying to figure out to play it. i close my eyes and waited. and she delivered some good music. kid's got talent, even at 7:15 in the morning
activities of the day: a few went to mitchell to take lunch to mom, who had to work at walmart until the afternoon. some set up the wii to play games. i know this because i came back from a quick trip around town to find trevor and libby tossing beanbags. and i'm pretty sure libby beat her dad. i also showed the boys how to watch netflix on my wii. of course, they were a bit overwhelmed but trevor and casey were fascinated with how many options there were for them to watch. at the end of the day, kiana, krissa, colten and i played some additional wii. turns out that krissa and i cannot play ski ball to save our lives but we kick butt at trivia. and colten is great at ski ball but not lawn darts.
animal updates: bill is comfy at home with most of the people and animals, but didn't like jack (libby's little rodent dog). jack was tiny and scared of the animals bigger than he was. no major problem with karma, but definitely did not know what to do about bill and gray, the rabbit and cat who are basically twice as big as he is.
meals for the day: kendra made chili for lunch with the evening meal comprised of turkey (i am so good at baking turkeys...), corn, mashed potatoes (trevor), gravy (casey), stuffing, and biscuits. it was a toss up of tradition as more males were in the kitchen than females. but it turned out really good.
we then moved on to exchange presents. our price limit this year was 53 cents (my theory in setting the limit was to encourage creativity by limiting it to a 50 cent item plus tax). so there was much creativity. for example, kayla gave mom items picked up that end up free with rebate and some old gift cards she had laying around (with no idea if there was any money on them). other highlights: mom tried to give karma back to trevor. trevor gave dad some old tools that he doesn't use for his job anymore. dad gave krissa stuff laying around the house. kendra gave kiana an old purse while kiana gave kendra a bag filled with some stuff she bought using up her money at the college store.
libby had no price limit. so she got books, shoes, finding nemo (to match a pair of shoes that look like clownfish), barbies, toy horse, and a giant purple dinosaur she can sit on and ride.
kayla opened up a bottle of wine she brought back from greece a couple years ago (kept forgetting to drink it at the big family events until yesterday). it was tasty.
then the troops started disbanding. kendra, trevor and libby went to trevor's family in wagner for the next round of meals and presents. casey and kayla to casey's family. and kiana and colten to pierre for his family.
which means that this morning krissa and i were the only children here this morning to see the stockings hung on the tree with care...
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