grammy's christmas party

leyton let me sleep til 8:30 or 9.  :)  good nephew!  it was super good, too, because he somehow set the alarm on the lego clock to go off at 7, and that sucka is LOUD!  ack!  i was in the middle of a dream of some sort - no idea what it was, now, of course - when suddenly i heard this angry sound, and it took me a minute to figure out where it came from, and then when i DID figure it out, i couldn't figure out how to shut it off for a minute!  leyton woke up for a minute & said, "aunt carrie, i'm going back to sleep.  are you going back to sleep?"  heh.  i said, "heck yeah!  see you in the real morning!"  : )  

when we did get up, we had some breakfast & played w/ his trucks, watched thomas, played online... 

and then got dressed & headed to pick up anthony's & go to auntie jan's for grammy's christmas!!!  

i dropped the boys off & had to run back to the house because i forgot grammy's gift and the food i wanted to bring.  then while i was at home, bret texted to say he couldn't get a ride to the party from church.  so i dropped off the stuff & went to pick him up.  wheee!  *laugh*  

we finally arrived at 1:30-ish (party starts at noon) and grabbed some food & started the visiting.  i got to sit w/ the aunts & uncles, and mandi, so that was nice.  ate some delish food!  i was soooo hungry, too!  *laugh*  there were bbq weiners, meatballs, grammy's chicken noodles, kim's cheesey potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, a spinach & veggie puff pastry thing, and mom's taco dip.  oh!  and a couple amazing dips which tasted great w/ pretzel chips!  

after lunch, grammy opened pressies & then we had our white elephant game.  leyton was a hit, and we have rylan & autumn, too, so watching all the little kids play was SO much fun!!  

 i walked into the room to find mandi & misha napping on shawna, and bret & mikey texting or FBing!  LOL 

 leyton & autumn played pretty well together.  so cuuuute!  

 anthony seriously had fun w/ rylan! 

 sammi & grammy 

leyton, the CUTEST photographer out there (sorry, branny, you're cute & all, too!)

 can't wait to see just what the lil guy captured!  i think this picture is so sweet... 

 candace, my glowy cousin.  isn't she pretty??!

 bret opens his white elephant gift - a trapper that used to be his and a picture that used to be his mom's, which my mom put in the exchange!  lol  

 belly button dance!  

these last two are favorites!  

sammi jo got this cute wooden turtle in the game, and i was jealous!  but she seemed excited to get it, so i couldn't begrudge her.  *laugh*  not that i would anyway... mikey got this nifty wrench thing, but then chris stole it from him, and then anthony wanted to steal it from chris, but didn't.  then chris gave it to anthony anyway, which was super nice of him, especially because anthony was getting all attitudey about it, which didn't even make any sense!  

aunt jan gave me a lovely christmas/birthday gift of $$, and aunt janie gave me a mystery book, which looks really interesting!  she likes the series, and it's about a cat playing a part in detecting cases, which everyone knows i love because of Fear Familiar.  : ) 

when we got home, i called to get my phone set up.  i'd called before leyton & i left this morning, and the guy told me he'd changed my plan & stuff, but apparently he changed it to the wrong one?  and then the network went down, so i had to call back tonight.  the gal that helped me tonight knew her stuff and was a really good customer service ambassador for Virgin Mobile.  once again, i have to give them kudos. they immediately made right the mistake of the first call rep, with no hassle or anything.  and the rep this morning was perfectly nice, and trying to be helpful, he just apparently didn't know what he was doing.  (training issue?)  so to get a well-trained & helpful rep tonight was much appreciated.  thanks, VM!  also, so far i love my new phone!  the camera takes pretty nice pictures!  : )  which i'll share as soon as i figure out how to upload them from the phone... LOL 

bret went to another christmas party after, even tho he was tired & just wanted to chill.  but he'd left his keys & phone charger at his friend's house, a friend who would be at the christmas party... so i watched some episodes of Psych & then OLTL.  and now it's not even 10:30, but my eyes are doing the droopy sleep thing, and tomorrow is a lovely busy day at work!  but then after work i get to meet my former helper bee friend at osaka.  woot!  

ttfn!