Jingle Bell Rock

Christmas Eve
The whole day was the kind of a riff on the usual Allen family tradtions. It was like it was the same, only different. Why is that? A lot of reasons: 1) Some things are a headache and didn't need repeating, 2) Lauren, Craig, and I are married and have the subsequent (yet wonderful) complications that go along with that 3) See number 1.

The morning started out with a big breakfast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrown cassarole, crescent roll / cream cheese icing thing). This is a fairly recent tradition, usually done at IHOP. As you all know, eating at IHOP can be ridiculous. Instead, we stayed in and Mom & Dad did the cooking. That saved a headache, and helped garuntee that Craig & Amber could leave for Hernando, MS when they needed to. Also, it had to be cheaper.

After breakfast and clean-up, we exchanged gifts. Usually we do this at Granny's (dad's mom's house). It's always seemed kinda of silly, hauling them to her house and back just to unwrap them. I think it also calmed my 2.5-year-old neice down. Worth it.

At 2:30, the family (minus Craig & Amber) went to go see Yogi Bear in completely adequate 2D! All told, it wasn't awful, Analise enjoyed it, and it wasn't terribly long. Probably ate too much popcorn though (more on that later).

Almost immediately after the movie, we regrouped at the house and headed down to Granny's for dinner and a few presents. Jennifer & I got Granny some Jack Daniel's coffe, which went over really well. All told, it was a pretty mellow evening, which is what I think we were going for. We got back well after 10:30pm, which was not ideal, but much better than we've done before.


Christmas Day

In the wee hours of the morning, I was visited by that old holiday elf: indigestion. That's no fun at 5:00am. Several TUMS and 2 tblsp of Pepto Bismol later, I was good enough to go.

Jennifer & I made it to her parent's house a little after 8:00am. There was a nice calm before the storm. With six siblings, and something like +10 kids under the age of 13, the best thing to do is stake out a corner of the room and don't move. They can detect motion. Jennifer & I got some nice gifts, both individual and for the both of us. There was too much food before and at lunch.

Around 1:00pm, we made a break for it and headed to Nan & Pop's (Mom's parents' house). What did we do there? Eat lunch, again. This was a pretty low-key event as well - mostly adults. Jennifer got a nice robe and basket and I got a Scrade Old Timer 3-blade knife. Good times.

Finally, it was over to one of Jennifer's aunt & uncle's for Christmas desserts. We missed a good bit of the drama (oh well), but things were still simmering a little bit. This time we found the house without too much trouble, at least.