getting caught up

Before I write the big post recapping my 2006, I should get caught up on my posts for the last few days (or week). I never posted about Christmas (other than my gifts!). If I had, the title of that post would have been: "You know what's good about Laura? She knows what is funny." That is what my sister said on Christmas day. Christmas was ok. Nothing too exciting. Just family time. On Christmas eve, mom, dad, and sister came over for dinner. Chris and I made tamales for the first time. (My sister blogged about this - so check this out for photos.) We thought since we really like tamales, why not try to make them ourselves. It took two days and teamwork and we managed to make 138 tamales. And they were freaking good. Our freezer is full (thank goodness for the foodsaver!), even after giving a ton to my parents. We will be eating tamales forever and a day. We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house last year and it was really nice, so that's why we did it again. Chris and I did not go to the big family get together this year. There was drama with when it was going to be and it wasn't decided until the 23rd when we would have it. I normally enjoy these gatherings and Chris hates them. It's a sore spot in our relationship. Now that I think about it, enjoy is not really the right word. I go to them so that I can spend time with my extended family. Aunts, uncle, cousins, second cousins, etc. I usually only see them on holidays, because they live on the other side of town (over 25 miles away). So, we didn't go this year. On Christmas day, we went over to my parents house in the morning. Mom made the rolls that she has made every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. Then we opened presents together. I like to take turns opening gifts and only one person open at a time. That way it makes the gift opening take longer. This however does make others too happy. I guess they would rather tear into their gifts and see what everyone else got later. But we do it my way and I like it. One thing I do not like, that happened more than once, is when someone complains that you spent too much money on their gifts. This, to me, is rude. If I didn't want to spend the money, I wouldn't have. Just appreciate what you got and the thought behind it and don't tell the person they spent too much. After gifts, we ate snack foods and played Yahtzee.
Funny things that happened Christmas day:
- My mom spent the whole day wearing the pearls my father gave her for Christmas. She was wearing a jogging suit and t-shirt, but still she kept the pearls on. Hours of entertainment...
- My sister stopped playing Yahtzee to go curl her hair. She had showered that morning and so her hair was straight. When I asked her why she curled her hair, especially since she was going to see no one other than us for the whole day, she answered that she curled her hair because she didn't like looking at it straight. Um, ok. She is so weird about that.
- My dad did not play games with us. He watched tv and ended up watching the rerun of the national spelling bee. Now it is fun to make fun of that, but I will admit that I watched the bee when it was on the first time. Why? I have no idea. So, I can't give him too much crap about it.
There are some pictures here. None of the sister, because she is still keeping her identity a secret and I respect that...

edited to add: I don't want to forget to mention our anniversary dinner! We went to The Melting Pot and OHMYGOD it is so good. We had been to another one a few years ago and loved it. So instead of gifts to each other this year, we went to dinner. I love the fondue. It is such a nice time. We had a great bottle of Flora Springs 2005 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay. Very nice, since our main course was beef, chicken and seafood. Yum. Yum! Go to The Melting Pot if you can - just know that it takes a long time (we were there for 3 hours) and it is not cheap. But it is well worth it!