Christmas 2009

After several days of trying to get around to writing a post about Christmas, and even attempting it a few times, I have realized that it would take me a month to write a very detailed post. So, I’ve decided to leave it largely up to the photographs we took to tell our Christmas tale. I’ll try to keep the comments to a minimum, but a few details will be needed.

On Christmas Eve, Melanie made broccoli and cheese soup (from scratch!) and served it in bread bowls that we had special ordered from the supermarket. Melanie likes the idea of having homemade soup and bread bowls as a Christmas Eve dinner tradition. She certainly started this tradition off right—the soup was delicious! Even Eddie ate it, though he avoided any sizable chunks of vegetable that made their way into his bowl.

Peter, on the other hand, preferred only the bread bowl.

Eddie sips some wine grape soda.

After dinner on Christmas Eve, we let Eddie and Peter each open up a gift—a smaller-sized Christmas blanket for each of them. We then headed out to drive around looking at Christmas lights, the blankets in tow. (Eddie and Peter both fell asleep during the drive, and as a Christmas miracle, Melanie and I were able to transport them into their beds without waking them up when we got back home.)

Christmas morning…

Santa left his traditional tins full of candy; notice the empty plate and glasses where treats for Santa were left out the night before.

As one of the sweetest gifts she’s ever given me, Melanie had two of my guitars professionally restrung, tuned up, and cleaned up. They had been missing strings for a very long time. In the last five days, I have probably played more guitar than I have in the last couple of years. As a fun side note, the 1994 Fender Stratocaster I am playing in this picture was apparently all the rave at the guitar shop. Melanie said all the employees wanted to check it out and were asking her lots of questions about it. They’d never seen a finish like that, they said, and they wondered if it was a custom built guitar. According to Melanie, “It felt like being cool for a minute.”

Here’s wishing you a happy new year!