Christmas Family Update (With Pictures!)

If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that this is Steve writing this post… so don’t expect too much out of the pictures. They were, however, taken on my brand new cheap little camera.

Our first Christmas has been a success, I guess you could say. No meltdowns, and we got through it virtually unscathed. The most exciting part to me, was how excited Rachel was to get the house all decorated and festive, since she never really did that at home.

The first picture I have to show you has nothing to do with Christmas, and everything to do with our cat:


She has decided that her new favorite spot to sleep is on Rachel’s pillow. As you can imagine, Rachel is a little distraught by this development, and wonders why the cat didn’t choose my pillow instead. Well… I’m ok with it. 🙂

Christmas Eve

On Christmas eve, we had the whole (T-Narwold) family together at my parents house for dinner, presents, and merriment. The evening started with me and Ben playing with a bowl of ballistics gel that he had made. That was pretty fun. We ended up crushing it in our hands and melting parts in hot water:

The food was even more exciting than the gel:

After that, it was time to open gifts. Those were exciting because a lot of people got things they really liked, and it’s always fun to watch someone’s face light up.

The gumball machine takes any coin (we use pennies) and is just like the one my Grandma Narwold used to have. She used to keep a bunch of pennies in the drawer beneath it so we could always afford a piece. That gift brought back all kinds of great memories.

I liked this gift because of Ben’s reaction. I don’t even remember exactly what it was (Some DVD), but Ben was cheering about it. It was really fun.

Rachel got a brand new Betty Crocker cookbook! She’s been wanting one ever since she’s had the old one that her mom gave her. She loves the cookbook because it’s such a wellspring of knowledge, and now to have one that’s up-to-date is a Christmas wish come true. Thanks Jamie!

I don’t think this was the one, but one of Erica’s gifts was a pair of rather powerful candles. In fact, we never took them out of the box or ziplock bag they were in, but Matt was still having a hard time breathing. I’m afraid to know what will happen to him when she burns them…

After all the gifts were done, and everyone had gone upstairs, I took a panoramic picture of the room… you know… because I could:

Christmas Day

Christmas morning, Rachel and I celebrated our first Christmas together. We incorporated traditions from both of our families, and had a lot of fun. We probably made up a few new traditions that we won’t even realize we made until a few years down the line. The gifts were fun again. I think I had the most fun just getting Rachel her gifts. But I now officially have a Larry Boy mouse pad, so everything is right in the world.

Later, in the afternoon, mom, dad and Ben came over to our house for some fun and games. We played my new Phase 10 game, and Raine really wanted some of the action:

In this picture, I think Raine was upset by the hand she was dealt. She just sat there and stared at the cards until it was her turn to play.

Here Raine is confidently staring accross the table at her competition. Heck, she had already laid down her hand, she was in good shape.

The Garage Sale

This morning, at around 7:30, we (Mom, Laura, Philip, Eric, Ben and I) all showed up to get in line for REI’s “Garage Sale.” They have one every few months, and it’s a huge event. You can find some really great deals on all kinds of returned merchandise. Here were the lines outside the store before they let us at the goods:

There were three lines, and you got to choose which one you got in, but didn’t know which one was going to go first. They randomly selected lines and let 75 people from each line through, then opened it up to the rest of the mob. I was 2nd in line, but I was in the third line called, so I was the 152nd person to go in. Well, you can’t win ’em all, right?

Well, that’s it from us for now. I hope you all have a happy New Year!

-Stephen (and Rachel)