Christmas wrap-up

The first thing I did on Christmas Eve morning was open the second-to-last offering in Shauna McDaniel's Curated Countdown of Crap for Christmas.

Inside I found a smattering of mostly unrelated Christmasy items. Nice.

Once that was done, I suited up and went to the barn, where I took a slew of Christmas photos of Olive and her friends.

The balance of the day was spent baking cookies, cleaning the house, wrapping gifts and visiting Ryan.

It was a very merry Christmas Eve.

Christmas itself was a little more complicated. James woke up sick, but rallied just long enough to open presents.

It was a small year as far as gifts go, but I am excited about this doming set.

Also, I am already regretting the decision to give Seth an Emergency Monkey.

As usual, all the used wrapping paper ended up on Emma, who never takes offense. Shortly after I took this photo, James went back to bed.

I made a quick trip to the barn to see Olive. Then Seth and I drove to the senior living community and spent some time with his parents. After we got back, we were visited by Ryan and Sarah.

I didn't take any pictures of the humans.

However, I did manage a whole series of funny selfies with Olive. Priorities.

Dinner was a quiet affair, just Seth and I and way too much food. We packaged up a lot of it to give to everyone who wasn't present. Merry Christmas leftovers!

Somewhere along the way, I opened my last little bundle from Shauna.

It's a color shifting, 3d printed Santa centaur. Santaur.

I love him, but also, I am so sad it's over.

I can not overstate how much I've enjoyed having a little something to open each of the last ten mornings.

Did I need any of this? No. Am I delighted to own it? Yes! One hundred times yes!

Thank you, Shauna, for making the holidays a little brighter and whole lot weirder.

And just like that, Christmas is over. Let the countdown to 2024 begin!