Christmas 2007 Recap

Christmas 2007 with the Youngrens was AWESOME! Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year, with all the decorations and food and presents and time with family, it's just the best. This year, Erin and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here in San Diego with my side of the family, and my little brother Dan flew in from Indiana to join us. While I didn't take a ton of pictures, I did take some, so let me share them with you!

Leading up to Christmas, I had been putting Gracie's Santa hat on her every morning while I was getting ready for about 2 minutes, so she could get used to it for Christmas. As you can see from the following pictures, she was still not used to it, come Christmas morning. She does look awfully cute, though.

Erin and I spent the morning at our place opening gifts to each other, and then headed up to my folks' place in Rancho Santa Fe for the rest of the day.

Ok, check this out. My buddy Jeff of La Vida Creations gave me a hot tip for making omlettes, and I decided to give it a try Christmas morning for brunch with the family. At things like this, I always end up making omlettes made to order, and even with my mom's 6 burner viking range, I can't keep up and it's insanity making omlettes for everyone and have them all done at the same time. So Jeff tells me the other day at the San Diego PUG Christmas party his little secret.

You take all the goodies you want in your omlette, and throw them into a sandwich baggie:

Then I cracked three eggs into each of the baggies, and wrote with sharpie peoples names, and then had everybody squish up the ingredients:

Then you toss them in boiling water for 15 minutes. Jeff says 13 minutes, but I found 15 minutes to work best with 3 eggs.

Then, 15 minutes later, they're all done at the same time!!! And they're cooked PERFECTLY! It was a HUGE hit, you have to try it. Trust me!! Thank you so much Jeff!!!

My Dad and I. Can you see where I get the goofyness from?

Again, goofyness.

My little brother Dan, who drinks 14 cups of tea a day. How crazy is that! He's about to graduate from the University of Indiana with 3 majors and 2 minors and a 4.0. Yes, he is the smart brother.

The beautiful Christmas tree, with all kinds of good stuff beneath it!

Erin, Dan, and I holding some gifts from Grandma in Minnesota. Thanks Grandma! (She's an avid blog reader)

Yes, we torture our cats. This is Misty who put up pretty well with the Santa hat. She's weird though. Side story with misty: after the San Diego fires, which burned within about a mile of my parents home, Misty showed up at the back door. So my parents took her in, and despite their best efforts, they couldn't find her owner! She smelled like smoke and hadn't eaten in 10 days. Now she's a happy Santa cat.

Her and my Dad get along well. They're good buddies.

This is Santa Gaby. Super pissed.

Misty sleeping under the tree, in the middle of all the craziness.

Gaby, in the other room because she was pissed about the Santa Hat!

The last picture of the day, right before the wine started flowing and the food started coming in crazy quantities!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!