Christmas #4 - the final chapter

Ok, so the final Christmas celebration was at my moms house today. We get together for a yummy lunch & then presents!

Poor Rhonda... She's doing the Ironman next year & she has been training. THIS is the piece of cake dad gave her. I told her to go throw up if she needed too... Carrot cake for everyone. Photo bomb courtesy of Jeremy!
Remember the Nativity from Thanksgiving? Mom saw these napkins between the Wise Men. She asked, " OK! Who's using my Wise Men for napkin holders?!" Uhm - it was my dad...
For some reason this year, Jer decided to hand out presents. This is usually MY job! Pssssh, doesn't he know I'M a control freak?!Lucky me-this was my view for the present giving outing.
He got dad a shooting towel. (Dad shoots sporting clays.) And Rhonda embroidered his name on it & also, "from the worlds greatest son". He's such a smart a**.
Rhonda brought a couple of her dogs over. Jack likes to help you open presents...
But ya can't let him help too much...or the box looks like this!

Mom couldn't believe all the presents she had!

Mom got something that she didn't know if she should give Jer or B-rad... Jer's such an attention whore....

See?!

Dad's not real 'socially' minded so he kinda interrupts the flow of things. Jer was opening his gift from us & dad just runs up to him to show & explain the knives he got him & B-rad. Of course, not wrapped...

Ok-here it is! I took a pic that I had taken of him during the Ironman & my friend, Shauna, made it into a poster & put the date & his times on it!

Woot woot! Aren't you proud of me, JLL? I was actually patient & asked for Eclipse for Christmas?!

Every family has traditions. You can't judge the traditions. They just are what they are. Got it?!

1st tradition - mom buys me a Holiday Barbie. 2nd tradition - mom fills our stockings. And inside the stockings are little knick knacks, ya know? Welllll, in MY stocking I expect Reese Christmas trees. Period. (I expect them in B-rad's too so I can eat them as well...) That's the tradition. After I ate dinner, mom said, "Is that all you're going to eat?!" I said, "Oh yes. I'm saving room for Reese trees." So mom starts crying & I'm like what the hell?! It seems THIS year she either a) lost the trees she bought or b) never bought trees at all? I'll pause for a moment of silence..............................

So of course I told her it's fine - which it is. Kinda. I mean-she DID get me other candy. But since we're all about the tough love - we had to give her a hard time. Jer said things like, "Next year I'm going to hide the trees so you think you forget them." I said, "Gosh mom, did you forget my Holiday Barbie too?!"

Nope, she got her. At least Christmas was not totally ruined this year...

Remember the knife Jer got? Well mom used it to open one of her boxes. Sheesh!

B-rad, myself & Jer all went in together & got mom a GPS. I think she liked it? (We got her other stuff too. This was just the funniest pic of her face I got!)

What you are about to witness is like a lunar ecplise. Or Galileo's comet. It only opens once every thousand years.... we.took.a.family.pic. Gasp...

I was trying to get the camera all lined up.

And attention whore decided to help...

HERE IT IS! Please, bask in the wonderment that is a Brown family pic.

Jer (which I'm really sure it was Rhonda) got mom a frame that said 'family'. So Rhonda took a pic of just us for moms frame. Wow. 2 family pics in the span of 10 minutes? Armaggedon is surely upon us...