i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! my christmas was great, we had a relaxing christmas eve, just the four of us, when we went to eat dinner in dc, and then we drove around enjoying the decorations, including the national christmas tree and the incredibly tacky house in arlington. on christmas morning, we opened all of our presents before the deluge of relatives came in. my presents were a hit, yay! my mom loved the painting i made for her, which had the four portraits of my grandma, my mom, my sister, and me on it. i've learned that the best thing to give the woman who has everything is art ( and my aunt is now hinting that she wants "original art" for her birthday ). i also gave my sis a painting. which had us in abstract shapes on it. i gave my dad a personalized redskins jersey and he put it on immediately and wore it the whole day : ) my presents were all things that i had asked for, which is good, though mv felt like a bad gift-giver ( you aren't ). i got sweaters, slippers, paintbrushes, a leatherman multi-purpose tool ( for nstv crew ), the piano sheet music for amelie ( i played that right away ), an ICE CREAM MAKER ( that my mom re-gifted, haha ), and other fun things.
then all the family came in! we haven't had a total family reunion since 1987, and i couldn't really enjoy that since i was 4. but now, i get to have fun with all my aunts and uncles and cousins ( when i'm not at work ). and the best thing of all is that manuel is here! he is, hands down, the cutest baby ever. and i'm not being biased. he's gotten so much chubbier since the last time i saw him! he looks like the baby from the joy luck club that drowns, but he's even cuter. i can't believe that he's going to be here for almost a month. i wish i didn't have to go back to school. anyway, he's been totally smothered for the past two days, which makes him a little cranky, but when it's calm and no one's fussing over him, he's so smiley and curious, and you just want to kidnap him. i could just eat his little fat cheeks : ) so since he's going to be here for a while, mv and i decided not to play with him that much for the next couple of days ( though we did entertain him this morning when the relatives were asleep ), since everyone else is fawning over him. we don't want to add to the crowd that's smushing him. but when everyone leaves on sunday, we'll have him all to ourselves! mwa ha ha! and then mv will steal him so he can't go back to london. but of course, being with the cousins is great, since we hardly ever see them. and last night, tina's whole family came over so we had a fun night of girly movies, good food, and presents! but now, it's back to work. heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work i go....