Some of the family at Christmas.

My brother's family, my mother, and in the background you can see my husband, bleary-eyed and disinterested in participating in picture-taking. We started the holiday at 8 a.m. at my parents' house - the kids very kindly agreed to wait until then to start ripping into their presents.

Merry Christmas!

Taken on a Nikon D40.

Photo originally taken on December 25, in Celebration, Florida.

Photo posted on December 26, 2009.

We put up our Christmas tree with a little help from Mickey.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and a happy day to those who celebrate otherwise.

Today I had two Christmases, many lovely gifts, five hours riding in the car, one very excited little niece and one equally excited little nephew, a hearty breakfast of ham and cinnamon rolls lovingly made by my mother, a wonderful meal anxiously (and also lovingly) prepared by my sister-in-law for the first time for the holidays, and a cat coming home after two days missing.

Best of all, I had my family, whom I cherish.

And I also had photography! A photo or two will be forthcoming on my Flickr account http://flickr.com/victoriapictures

Goodnight!

Happy Holidays.

"It's Christmas Eve. It's-it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we-we-we smile a little easier, we-w-w-we-we-we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be."

-Frank Cross, from Scrooged (1988)

An army of Kiss Cookies.

Ah, kiss cookies, how yummy you taste. My least favorite thing about baking is that I eat what I bake. Tomorrow it's cheesecake and Nutella pie making day (are you surprised? Our families like the baked good-eating ruts they are in).

I am going to make my husband take a bunch of these to work tomorrow. Hopefully whoever is there likes Kiss Cookies.

Ron on his 74th birthday.

Today is my father's 74th birthday. We had a quiet little celebration at my parents' house. My eldest nieces even drove up from my hometown in southwest Florida to visit. My dad tuckered out pretty early on in the day, but I am sure he managed to enjoy the Nutella Pie I left behind.

Happy birthday, Dad. Love you.