M - My favorite day of the year

Amongst the many conflicts that can arise in marriages due to conflicting family traditions (things like whether you open presents on Christmas morning vs. Christmas Eve), Dana and I wandered onto something in the early days of our marriage that has become uniquely our own.
It involves food, of course, but it's mostly a special tradition just because it is ours.

During our first Christmas as a married couple, like most, we wanted to have our own gift exchange prior to traveling to see family. We decided also to include a fancy meal and use our china which at this point would have only been about 6 months old. We set up a card table in living area of apartment #412 and commenced to have ourselves quite a nice dinner prior to opening presents.

This is something that just 'stuck' and we've been doing it every year since.

This year we had grilled steak and grilled shrimp kabobs as the main dish. Sides included sweet potato casserole, bread, salad and a wonderful dessert. Everything turned out about as perfect as we could have hoped.

We had a BEEEYOOOTIFUL fire (are you starting to think I'm a pyromaniac) to help set the already wonderful mood. Much to our children's chagrin, this is a 'dress up' dinner and it's such serious business we have graduated from our card table to actually moving the whole kitchen table into the living room.

As you can see, no details are spared and even the table is decorated quite nicely.

This is Katie's signal that she ate her last shrimp and is now ready for DESSERT!!

And doesn't desssert look tasty?! Your eyes are not deceiving you - it was EXCELLENT.

General mischief and merriment.

Not that you'd expect our kids to be going bonkers most of the evening already in anticipation of opening presents...but we prolong the agony even more by forcing pictures before any presents are opened.

The obligatory family photo...

More mischief and merriment...

Group silliness...

Noah's subtle reaction to opening the Wii...

Katie tightly holding her Princess game for the Wii...

I'm so very serious when I say this is my favorite overall day of every year. It's such a special time for our family and, since we go 'all out', it really makes a great memory. If nothing else, it'll give our kids something to argue about with their future spouses as they debate the RIGHT way to do Christmas dinner.

M - Christmas lights inside and out

I absolutely enjoy Christmas every year and getting ready for it is one of the best parts.

We really like our Christmas tree and Dana has worked out a great system for keeping the lights on it while in storage and using ziplocs and post-it notes to label all the plugs according to where they go on the tree.

Part of our tradition is watching Miracle on 34th Street while we put up the tree. Mind you, this is the VHS version. However, we received the DVD this year as a gift so we're really hot stuff now.

We also put up Christmas lights on the house each year. I remember our first year in this house (1998) and I had MAJOR plans to decorate the outside. The only lights I had were almost all at least 10 years old that I'd hauled from my home in Ardmore. To make a long story short, I sat out in the dark in the freezing cold checking hundreds of light bulbs and finally got so mad I threw every strand of light in a box and gave up.

We've advanced since then and have a pretty good thing going now. We have an alternating light pattern between green, red, and clear and put light strands on all the front eaves and ridges of the house. We also have some candy cane lights we put out.

It seems like this year was the first time in a while it wasn't absolutely FREEZING. We still start way too late in the day and end up finishing in the dark.

MammaBoz was not a big fan of Katie's assistance on the roof this year. In fact, she literally couldn't look up at us and the neighbor had to take our picture!

This year we should be able to keep all our shingle tabs on the light bulbs themselves so it will be much easier next year to put everything back up. I've also drawn a map that shows where each strand goes so the light patterns will end up in the right place. Don't look too hard but this year we have a couple of colors out of order where the strands meet.

This is not easy for two Type A OCD peeps like us but we...managed. :-)

It's not much but it'll do for our special domicile.

M - Wii pajama bowling in Ennis, TX

We knew we were going to get a late start out of Oklahoma City on our way to Houston for Christmas this year. Thus, MammaBoz decided we should try to stay in Ennis, Tx, just south of Dallas. We have become quite the raging fans for Comfort Suites hotels and that's where we are as I blog this entry. We checked the room rates before leaving OKC and everything was around $85 (which is always more than I like to spend on a hotel). My wife is a hotel snob...I am not. My basic requirements are clean sheets and I can manage around anything else.

The great thing is that the whole Choice Hotels chain is running $59 nightly holiday rates through the end of the year. The fact that the rooms are always nice and hot breakfast is always free makes it a great bargain!

Since the Bosley's are now owners of a Nintendo Wii, we brought it with us and enjoyed a round of family bowling before bed. It was boys vs. girls and the boys came out victorious by a single point. Katie is curiously good at Wii bowling! Perhaps it's the little hop down right after the ball is released. This is something that requires more study.

Wii baseball is pretty cool also aside from the additional shoulder injury I incurred swinging for the fences.

Here's a shot vid from our bowling adventures last night. Listen closely and you'll hear some of the awful things my bride is teaching my daughter about girls ruling and boys drooling. Enjoy!!