holiday scrapbook

Christmas 2009 blew into town and covered us with a blanket of white.

Good thing we were already planning to stay home, as it would have been

tricky to travel up north in the storm.

Due to the storm, the Mall allowed each tenant to determine how late they

wanted to stay open for Christmas Eve.  Usually we head in to the store in

the afternoon, send our crew home, and manage the store until it closes at

six.  This year, we had the crew shut her down at three and we started our

Christmas Eve. celebration early!

Not knowing quite what to do with all of that time, we decided to play

holiday Monopoly.  Since we only had the Star Wars version, we made it

work.  If you landed on "Go to Jail", you got to open a gift!  It was a nice

balance of pain and pleasure.

We ate snacks happily, opened gifts merrily, and later took a moonlit snow

walk through the neighborhood.  It was great to watch families celebrating

through their brightly lit windows, all snug and cozy and happy. 


Charlie left cookies for Santa (even though he NO LONGER BELIEVES)

and Claude had started in on them by the time I got back downstairs to

stuff the stockings.  Here, he is innocently looking all cute and acting like

he doesn't want to chew on the ribbons.

And here, the topless tree that ate our living room.

It was a wonderful Christmas, (even with the wide angle lens making my

shoulders look like a linebacker).

Hope your holiday was a memory maker too!  (and the actual photo does

say Merry Christmas, not Merry Christ....)