I Suck At Christmas

Happy birthday our lord and savior, Anna! For anyone curious, today happens to be my friend's (Anna) birthday. So happy birthday! I hope you have a great day! Coincidentally, today also happens to be Christmas. Too bad I suck at Christmas.

Karen and I started the day watching my twenty one month old daughter (Briana) open her presents from Santa. I don't think Briana has quite gotten the whole Santa concept just yet. She has, however, seemed to figure out that she gets presents and very much likes to open presents. And truthfully, who doesn't like getting presents? It was definitely fun being able to see Briana open her gifts.

Shortly afterwards, my parents came over for breakfast. Because I have a small family and Christmas day is usually spent at my favorite sister-in-law's (Janine), my parents come over in the morning for breakfast. And on the menu for breakfast: waffles! Someday, I'll have to experiment and make different types of waffles. The waffles I make are just too plain in my opinion. Maybe chocolate chip waffles next year? That sounds good. Although anything with chocolate sounds good.

Anyway, my parents enjoyed watching Briana open her presents from them. We even did the family thing by contacting my brother who lives in Texas to wish him a Merry Christmas (or Happy Annamas). My brother, who recently met Briana back in October, seemed to enjoy the fact that she said "Hi" and "Bye" to him. All in all, it was a good time with my family.

From there, I made some roasted potatoes to bring to Janine's. I don't know whether I should be offended or not because Janine was hesitant to ask me to make roasted potatoes. She did not want Karen to exert herself by making the potatoes. At the same time, she was afraid to ask me to make them because she was not sure if I knew how to.

Funny thing about being married to a dietitian: people seem to think that the dietitian does all the cooking. Oh how wrong that is. I can't remember the last time Karen made a meal. Part of that is because I have been home before Karen returns from her own job. And with Briana, I don't really have much of a choice but to figure out how to make something when it's time for her to eat.

Now granted, by no means am I chef. I can do some things. Roasting potatoes happen to be one the things I (and probably a lot of other people) can do. And really, if I did not know how to do it, I'd consult my trusty friend, Google. So I thought it was a little bizarre that Janine was hesitant to ask. Little does my favorite sister-in-law with the gluten allergy know, I put gluten in the roasted potatoes. I'm just kidding. The potatoes were gluten free.

Potatoes aside, Christmas at Janine's was great. My niece (Kaleigh) and nephew (PJ) had a great time. This year, I had the dubious distinction of saving Christmas for PJ. Apparently, we accidentally forgot to bring PJ's present. Stressed, Karen wanted to go home to get the present. Naturally, I volunteered. So Karen told me to get the present wrapped in silver. And by silver, she apparently meant blue. Luckily for me, I knew what we had gotten PJ because I probably would not have found the present based on Karen's description.

For me, one of the other more memorable parts of the night involved my dance off with Kaleigh. My favorite niece challenged me to a duel in Dance Party 3, which is a dancing video game if you could not tell by the name. Always up for a challenge, I accepted. After all, I bested the best. My friend (Hot Amy) who used to play tennis... beaten in a tennis match by yours truly who never played tennis. Hot Amy in anything... beaten. Okay, so maybe Hot Amy and her propensity for losing was not the "best".

So how hard could it be to take on a second grader in a video game? Well, I should have stopped after one dance off. After all, the first dance off challenge between Kaleigh and I went to me. And like any good uncle, I did some trash talking. From there, I just went downhill losing the next three. Despite the mounting losses, it was a riot playing against Kaleigh. She was just so serious and determined to win. It was fun... and quite the workout.

All in all, it was a great Christmas. I enjoyed the time with my family. I enjoyed the time with Karen's family. Since the passing of my son (Braden) over three years ago, I have come to cherish the time spent with family and friends because that time is so limited. So for me, today was quite rewarding.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone!