Christmas

We got up this morning around 8:30am to open presents. We opened JoJo's stocking first as she already tried to get into it last night. She was so cute sniffing at the top of the stocking until she accidentally knocked it and it's hanger off and scattered away pretending as if she had nothing to do with it. I'm sure it was the raw hide candy canes she was sniffing around for, even though they are securely wrapped in plastic. That just goes to show you the power of a dog's sense of smell. We gave her the ball we got for her and then opened the candy cane raw hides and gave her one to chew on. Then we opened our stockings. I gave Marshall a bunch of candy, the Phillip Phillips CD, a card game, a mustache pen that talks and some hot sauce. He gave me some candy, a monkey hanger, a sculpture and a nose sculpture that holds your eye glasses. The one sculpture he gave me he said reminded him of our two sons holding hands so he wanted to get it for me as a reminder of my two little boys. Then we opened our presents. I gave Marshall Apple TV and some UGG boots. He gave me a Citizen Eco watch that runs entirely off solar power (no battery ever needed) and a ukulele! Sweet! Now I just have to learn to play it.

After playing around with our gifts for awhile, we showered and got dressed and headed over to my Mom's around lunchtime. We decided to take JoJo with us so she wouldn't have to sit at home by herself all afternoon on Christmas Day. Boy did my Mom have a spread! We exchanged presents and then ate. Mom had given Billy a basketball goal so we gave him a basketball and the movie I am Legend. Mom had wanted some fur lined boots so we got her some black ones. Marshall got a black iTouch watch from them along with some skull boxers (his Christmas Eve gift) and a Tshirt. I got some slippers for my Christmas Eve gift (since pajamas wouldn't fit me for awhile), a red maternity sweater and some thigh high socks. Mom also gave us a little present for the baby - an outfit with ducks on it, a blanket with matching ducks and a duck bib. We also received a Belkin @TV Plus which will allow us to take our cable TV with us out of town when we travel and prevent us for having to purchase cable when we are working out of town.

We then stuffed ourselves with sausage balls, cookies, chips and dips, cheese ball, apple cake, lemon pound cake, meatballs, pimento cheese dip, macaroni salad and broccoli salad. It was all delicious. We stayed over there for a few hours visiting and watching A Christmas Story on TV. Finally, we packed up and headed home.




Shortly after we got home my Dad came over for a visit. Marshall was in the middle of trying to hook up our Belkin @TV when he got there and it proved much more complicated that it should have been. We finally got it sort of working so we settled in and gave Dad his stocking and gift. We had filled his stocking with a Tshirt and some treats we knew he liked. The gift we gave him was a new HP laptop as his current one was not working and we knew he needed a new one. It has been a tough year for my Dad financially, so I'm glad we were in a place where we could help him out with this gift. I hope Marshall and I are always in a good financial place for if we ever struggle financially I don't know what we would do. We certainly don't have anyone that could help us out of a financial bind. Perhaps that's one reason we save money the way we do and don't blow it. We easily have enough money in our bank accounts to live for a year without either of us working a single day. I would like to get to the point where that year was more like 5 and hopefully our IRAs and other savings accounts will amass to enough to set us up with a comfortable retirement one day. I think about these things and so does Marshall and I'm glad we do. I'm glad we try to plan for our future as best as we can. I would love to one day live in a house that we own outright and no longer pay mortgage payments on. It would be great to have everything paid off. Maybe one day in the not so distant future we can obtain that goal.

All in all it was a great Christmas as we were able to be together and spend it with some of our family, which is really what the holiday season is all about. It had been a long, busy day so I was glad when we were able to put on our pajamas and relax for the remainder of the night.