'Twas the Day After Christmas . . .

. . . And all through the house, not a creature was stirring.

Not even a mouse!

(Our stockings, including one for the cats, as they appeared in the morning.)

Okay, we did stir, but just barely! We took a nice easy day yesterday, but after the hectic race of the last year (or more), we're all tired today anyway. We started Christmas morning off with a nice big breakfast. Cleaned up from that, sang some Christmas hymns, read the story of Jesus' birth as told in Luke 1 & 2, then decided to head up to open presents at about 2:00pm.

(Elizabeth and her cat, Monika, are ready to open their stocking!)

We aren't the type who like to rush through the presents in a general free-for-all manner. We all sit around the tree and open presents in turn, each watching every present that's opened --- properly admiring things, of course! Our general theme this year, as far as gifts, was "homemade", so there was a lot of "oo-ing" and "ah-ing" and the like, so we weren't through with things for several hours.

(Dad is really happy about his new ID bracelet . . . or is it the chocolate bar?)

There will be pictures coming of all the homemade presents soon, but we've been out shopping all afternoon! My great family gave me some wonderful presents! To name a few: a Wilson cake turner, a cupcake cookbook, needle-felting needles, argyle socks and 300 Victrola needles! Not to mention that my Grandmother gave me my Grampa's school ring! (More on that in another post, though it's visible on my hand in the pic below!) What more could a girl ask for?!

The picture above shows Elizabeth and me with some of our gifts. Click the pic to enlarge it, if you want to. The framed picture is a famous emblem for the campaign to end slavery in the 1800s. Elizabeth actually drew that for me! She's such a great sister! The little blanket on my lap is a present from Mom and Elizabeth. They made a crib size blanket with "Jungle Babies" material and dinosaur fabric for my one-day-to-be nursery. Elizabeth is holding some of her Smurf stuff and a new Nancy Drew book that she's nuts about! More to come on the Smurfs etc. . . .