Christmas Day she was dressed in her Santa Claus dress, although the matching hat was not on her head for very long. She takes after her father in not liking having anything on her head, which is problematic when the temperature drops.
Grace wasn't too into opening presents, but she did like the toys that came out of the boxes. I think her favorite toy is the Mozart Music Cube given to her by my parents. I think the thing is pretty darn neat too!! It plays eight different Mozart pieces, and you can either have the entire orchestra play, or only one instrument's part. The cool part is you can push the buttons for multiple instruments to play so you get a layering effect. It's really darn neat!!
Kurt got me a set of KitchenAid kitchen knives (score!!!), and a pair of battery-operated warming socks. Even without the power of the batteries, these socks do keep my feet warm! He thought I'd like them because I'm always complaining that my feet are cold. I think most of my girlfriends are actually jealous I got knives for Christmas. But I love getting practical gifts like that because I will use them every day, and every day I will think of the person that gave them to me as I use the item!!!
Michele painted me a beautiful Chinese-themed rice bowl, which shall join the one that I painted when I went to visit her in Jacksonville in November of 2002.
Dinner was absolutely fabulous! Kurt made garlic shrimp, spicy shrimp, seafood pasta, and scallops wrapped in bacon. We'd gotten the large scallops, the ones that are a couple of inches in diameter when raw. He simply wrapped them in bacon, seasoned them, and then baked them in the toaster oven. And they were absolutely delicious and sinfully tasty. I took one bite of them and melted. I cannot believe how good they turned out!!!
Yesterday we decided to get out of the house and we went shopping, but not to the madness of the malls. I also wanted to go for a drive, and there's a small town an hour north of here with a nice Walmart complete with wood floors. So I talked Kurt into going, only when we got up there, we couldn't find the Walmart. When he stopped to ask for directions, he was given directions to another Walmart, which was even better because it was a brand-spanking new one. And it wasn't crowded at all!! I found a nice powder blue windbreaker that's a lot warmer than it looks that zips closed and has a magnetic flap to keep the wind out, and it was on clearance no less!!
Of course, we only went to Walmart to get out of the house, but we left Walmart $100 poorer. It's amazing how that place can suck money out of your wallet!!
We also ate lunch at a mom-and-pop Italian eatery, which was very nice and VERY good. I am so sad that it's so far from the house because it's so tasty. But it's probably better for our checking account that it's that far away.
Today we did a little more shopping to return the tool I got for Kurt that didn't work. I got him a set of tools that includes a laser level, and the laser didn't work. So we had to go to Home Depot to exchange it for another one. Hopefully this one will work.
We also needed to stop in at Staples so I could get a banker's spike to keep my receipts all organized until I get around to entering them into the checkbook. As I got out of the car, Kurt yelled for me to ask about an "easy button" from the Staples commercials. I giggled and put my middle finger up at my forehead from across the parking lot.
When I got into Staples, an older gent corners me at the end of an aisle and says, "Excuse me, do I know you??" I said, "no..." and began backing away because I thought maybe this guy would start hitting on me or something. He replied, "Let me explain. I thought I saw you flipping me off in the parking lot!!" At which point I about died of laughter and explained that I tend to flip off my husband when he's being silly.
I really need to quit doing that!!!
There are photos on my photo site of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If you'd like to check them out, please click the Flickr button to the left.
I hope you had a great one, whatever it is you celebrate!!! Happy Holidays to you all!!!