"all in all draw nigh to gaze"

~come ye lofty, come ye lowly

so, christmas at my mom's house was missing an important part of family traditions--the christmas tree, and thereby, the singing o' the twelve days of christmas. I decided not to force it upon them since no one else brought it up, but I must admit that I missed it.

I already told you we had chili and the usual. I played the piano. We decorated the house. We had lots of cheese--both in our chili and in our words. Sterling came by for a bit and gave Matt and me a deliciously punny gift--ice cube trays in the shape of the titanic and icebergs, for "gin and titonics." I also took LOTS of pictures, but they were a bit challenging since my family likes to hang out in low light AND they weren't digging my flash. oh well. so excuse the grain, please.

here are christmas eve pics. the hats are ones my granny and granddad used to wear, but she gave them to matt and me. and that's the present sterling gave matt & me, with sterling in the background. and my sister and her boyfriend, my brothers and our cute little boston terrier gracie. there's a nativity ornament, the cheese for the chili, a picture with two of my favorite guys, adam requesting (annoyingly) that he have sterling's autograph, the centerpiece, the mint chews we all ate too many of, and more. anna gave us these neato arrow pens (I need to take a picture of them!) and I got some wonderfully fuzzy slippers. good stuff!