Christmas In Columbia

Would you believe me if I told you I've never opened up Christmas gifts in pajamas?

It's true!

In our family, we all had to be ready for the day: dressed up (with a strict no jeans rule!), hair combed and teeth brushed before we could make our way downstairs to see what Santa brought.  Oh, and Mom and Dad had to be ready for us to make our way down too -- huge video camera propped on Dad's shoulder, of course.

Nowadays, we've relaxed on the jeans rule, and since Santa is busier with families now with small children, all of our gifts are wrapped so we can make our way downstairs when we're ready.  We have Mom's traditional breakfast of wassail and bacon cheddar muffins (I posted the recipe in this guest post with Amanda) and we take turns opening gifts.

The biggest change this year is that there was a BOY joining in the festivities ... Ian!  Our first married Christmas together was really wonderful.

As we got ready to start opening presents, our family dog Tipsy assumed the position.  I think she has a new boyyyyyyfriennnnd.

The baby of the family, a 23 year old baby in this case, starts opening the gifts first.  Here are the Kate Spade dessert plates I got her this year.  They have this pretty gold band around the rim ... I can just see her having the girls over for macarons and champagne!  (Laura can make a mean macaron.)

Next comes the middle sister.  Here Sarah is opening up her Kindle from my parents.  I got Sarah a fun gift for her home from my recent trip to Furbish Studio in Raleigh, NC.

And then I open a gift, then Ian, then Mom, then Dad -- and we go around in that order until all gifts are gone!  I was seriously spoiled this year.  Ian got me the tortoise shell Michael Kors watch I've been coveting as well as an ivory down vest with faux fur collar and a gift certificate for a massage.  Jewelry, fur, and R&R ... he nailed it.  :)

Sarah gifted me a Coach tunic and I received a faux fur neck scarf/warmer from Laura.  Mom and Dad gave me a lot of fun goodies like Lululemon pants, a Real Simple subscription, a gift card to Williams Sonoma, the newest Swarovski holiday ornament, and several kitchen desires from our registry.  I also got some fun antique pieces.

One of the most beloved gifts, however, was from my sister's fiance to our Dad (a raging conservative, if you couldn't tell):

Yep, Obama toilet paper.  Sorry, Pres.

And don't think the dogs were left out!  Ian loosely wrapped pig's ears for Tipsy and for Drake so that they would also have something to unwrap.

Did I mention my mom is a Christmas baby?  I bet you can hardly even tell which one she is in the below picture.  We've been mistaken for four sisters before.

I had this cake made for her birthday.  Now, if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I had a minor freak-out moment when I picked it up on Friday to realize that instead of reading "60 and Fabulous" it read "Go and Fabulous."  The word "Go" had a cursive "G" so there was no way of passing it off.  Thank goodness for a great grocery store that remade the cake in under an hour and hand-delivered it to my door!

I'm sad Christmas is over, but today I bought my first stocking stuffer for 2012!  Never too early to start preparing.  :)