Happy Day After Day After Day After Boxing Day

Okay, so I've been stuck on that Christmas song for three days. (I wish the Robert Earl Keene didn't look so much like, well, a creepy serial murderer in this video. Sorry about that.)

I know. Y'all, I KNOW. But you know what?  It could be the best collection of those random moments that happen whenever families get together ever set to music. It's kind of loving in its snarkiness.

Anyway.

Christmas was lovely even though we were sadly lacking in extended family (and the associated drama) this year.  It was just the four of us and four pets, although two of them could easily have been the Bumpuses' dogs in A Christmas Story.  Santa proved to be a rocker when he brought the girls an electric guitar and amp and a full drum set as well as a blu-ray player disguised as a Playstation 3.  The girls (aided and abetted by Coop) gave me a new lens for my camera (which is totally the best lens I've ever had and makes me feel like a real photographer) and a certificate to a yarn store. I gave Coop a book and the tickets to the National Football Championship that he *** scored online.  (Coop did his graduate degree at UT and he's going with his father, who is an Alabama alumnus. It's a good thing they get along!) (***Yes, my streak of incredible lameness in the Presents for Coop arena continues unbroken.)

After the present-opening orgy, we  had a really lazy day. Three of us never got out of our pajamas.  I went back to bed, (because, ya'll, there was not one clear surface on which to sit in the whole downstairs) and read an entire book. I cooked a turkey but only a few trimmings and I finally broke down and washed a load of clothes, although I'd resolved not to do laundry on Christmas.  (Because, really, nothing celebrates the birth of our savior better than complete sloth and indulgence.) It was a great day.

Then on Boxing Day (I just love saying that for some reason.  Boxing Day.  Boxing Day.  BOXING DAY!) we went over to our friends' house for dinner, ping-pong and knitting.  It was wonderful.

The day after Boxing Day, and the Day AFTER the Day After Boxing Day (BOXING DAY!), we just hung out.  Tried to not get buried under the mound of used wrappings paper.  Filled a sock with catnip and watched the cats try to act like it was perfectly normal for them to be doing 360's  flying down the stairs and landing on the puppy's head. Coop taught Ana (11) how to play both the beginnings of Tom Sawyer AND Highway to Hell on the new electric guitar, thus achieving the high-point of his parenting career.  Had some sleepovers, got excited about the prospect of more snow and bought stuff to make chili.  The chili prospects dimmed when the snow prospects dimmed.

I don't know.  It's been a pretty relaxed holiday so far.  But then again, as I told a woman at the grocery store last night, "Santa brought my daughter a drum set for Christmas.  I'm in no hurry."

Happy Holidays from the Fam-uh-lee-ee.