The Ulrich Christmas (Two Weeks Late)

It all began early in the morning. I could not sleep. It was like I was 7 again, and the anticipation of Christmas morning and all that ensues was too much for me to handle. I got up and prepared some coffee via French press. Rebecca and I gathered around in the living room to observe each other opening the few gifts that we got each other. We kept it small this year, because we got a new tv and some furniture and a blu ray player that we considered our Christmas gifts to each other. We had some snacks for stocking stuffers. I actually had a stocking here, but Rebecca left hers in Grenada when we were there a couple of weeks ago. Because of this, I had to wait until she headed to the bedroom, and then lay it all out over the mantle. It actually worked out quite well. Among the things that I gave her were a pashmina (scarf from London), some Hot Tamales, and some skittles. She also got me some candy, that was dear to my heart.

As for gifts, I got Rebecca a couple of books she had been asking for. I went over the limit that we said we would spend on each other by a little bit, but I like to spoil her like that. One of the books I got her is all about Christmas stuff from the 30's to the 70's. She has hardly put the book down, even to this day. I didn't know she would like that one quite so much. I am truly glad I picked it as a gift for her. She gave me a cd of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones that I was wanting, Outbound. Also, she gave me another book to add to my long list of things to read. It will be a few books before I get to that one, but I am looking forward to it.

After enjoying each other's company for a while, we showered and headed out to the Ranch. We were all meeting up there at like 9:00 for some breakfast. It was so good. Mom slaved in the kitchen making some of her famous homemade cinnamon rolls. They are delicious!

We started opening presents with everyone at about 10:30. The instructions this year were to take our time a little more than we did last year. It seemed like we just rushed through everything last year, and we didn't want to make the same mistake this year. It really helped with getting some great pictures. I appreciated that. In fact, there are too many pictures to put them all up on here. It would just take forever to upload and arrange them on this blog. The link to the Picasa page where they are parked is as follows:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bruceaulrich

(The album is labeled....."12.25.08.01")

After the presents, we all just kind of chilled out and played with our gifts. Yeah, that's right...we played with them. I got lots of cool stuff. I got some books, tools, photography stuff. It was great! I got a remote for my camera and I played with that for a while.

We ate lunch about mid-afternoon. It was yet another fabulous meal (which around there aren't, I ask?). We had a ham with some homemade macaroni and cheese. Also, some corn pudding accompanied the aforementioned items. Okay, enough about food.

This year was a little bit different than some of the years in the past. Russ and Marjorie were there to celebrate with us. They have come down for Christmas before, but it has been quite a few years. I was glad to have them there with us. It is always a lot of fun when you can just get a house full of people during Christmas.

Later in the day, the "guys" went out and shot some guns. That, of course, was lots of fun. We were shooting at cans, clorox bottles, and pretty much anything that moved....Lookout Mom!

Anyway, overall, it was a very enjoyable time. I hope that we can make some equally impressive memories next year. Until then...