Christmas!

Christmas this year was wonderful! Daniel and I spent the beginning part of the week visiting with his Grumps and Grandmother and Cousin Kimble who were in town from Mississippi and staying at his parents' house. We ate lavishly (Kimble is an incredible chef) and enjoyed getting to see everyone. Saturday, two days before Christmas, Daniel had a date to hang out with his brother Andrew and good friend Hagan who was in town from D.C. Naturally, all the ladies - myself, Andrew and Hagan's girlfriends, Katie and Katie :) - got together and had lunch and got our nails done. It was quite a girly afternoon for us. The boys went hot-rodding in Daniel's new car and did some other "man" things...
Saturday night we drove down to the lake house to see my family. Sunday morning, Christmas Eve, we all woke up and opened presents because half of us wouldn't be there for the actual Christmas morning. It was a lot of fun and we got some Great gifts! That evening, my aunt and uncle Kathy and Johnny, and cousins Tina and Jim came over for dinner. We had another round of presents, but then Daniel and I had to hit the road.
Monday morning we woke up at Daniel's parents' house and opened presents. Daniel's gift to me was a gorgeous kitten who we later named Marble. She's a 6 month old Bengal cat which is a very unique breed stemming from the Asia Leopard Cat. She is the sweetest kitten and loves attention. We got lots of other wonderful gifts from his family and really had an amazing Christmas!
Later that afternoon, we went to his cousins Chad and Jennifer's house for dinner. There was ANOTHER round of gifts and lots of socializing. That night we enjoyed coming home to our new pet! Marble curled up with us and slept most of the night on top of the comforter between my knees. It was very sweet to wake up to her little nose sniffing around my face. I love cats!

Tuesday morning, we got up and went day-after-Christmas-shopping at Walmart. We bought lots of goodies for next year and a few things for Marble. It was fun picking out decorations - especially since they were all on clearance!
Daniel had to work two days this week, but Wednesday night we had our good friends Angel and David over for dinner. After a couple glasses of wine, Daniel and David started looking at some of our Christmas gifts and pulled out the new turbo Badger In-Sink-Erator disposal his parents had bought us. David began bragging about how easy they are to install and how it would only take five minutes...so Angel told him to get to work! Here's a picture of David's face through the hole where the drain used to be. About 45 minutes, several forgotten parts, two readjustments, and one big leak later, they had it installed and working flawlessly! Angel and I tried not to watch and entertained ourselves with the new kitten. I'm just very relieved I didn't have to install it myself!
Today was interesting because my cousin Jim (cousin Joe's younger brother), who is on leave from Iraq, was heading back to his base in Oklahoma from visiting his family in Aiken, SC. He stopped by the house and we chatted for a bit. It was the first time I had seen him in about 2 years! Luckily, when he gets deployed again in February, he'll be heading to Italy instead of back to Iraq. It was fun getting to catch up, but he had a long drive ahead of him and he couldn't stay long.

This weekend, Daniel, Marble, and I are venturing to the lakehouse to see the Detamores and celebrate New Years! We wish you all a very safe and happy new year wherever you are and best wishes for 2007!