Christmas Mile 144: Christmas Eve at our house

The one event we did not have to travel for was the Christmas Eve gathering at our house with my immediate family.

As soon as we arrived home from skiing I started cooking.  We had planned a low-key, appetizer-based event, but on the drive home from 7 Springs decided to incorporate potato skins in our menu, something that I had never made before, but knew that they took a lot of time.

In the end, we're glad that we decided to make the potato skins, since my family came hungry, even though they knew there wouldn't be a formal dinner.  We made: potato skins, fried flatbread with fresh spinach and artichoke dip, and soft pretzels with cheese and honey mustard dip.  My sister also brought shredded pork and rolls, which ended up being the "meal" portion of the evening.

Then, in our effort to cut down on the number of gifts that we had to transport, we convinced my niece to open her gifts that night at our house.  She received Dog Park Barbie.

And a Sponge Bob Connect Four.

Which Santa ALSO brought, even though I TOLD Santa in an e-mail that I had purchased that for her

We were really glad that she opened her gifts then, since she really enjoyed getting them and since on Christmas morning, there's always so much going on, that she doesn't even realize or get excited about some of the things that she receives.

We also enlisted her help in opening Murphy's gifts.  Murph is one lucky dog!  He received an enormous bag of dog treats and a new fleece for his bed!

Sniff sniff... what are those???

This is SO much better than an old, crappy towel!

After gifts, the party wound down, and we loaded some of the larger gifts into my family members vehicles since our car was already going to be packed to the brim and we didn't think we would be able to fit everything (that turned out to be true.) 

As is our tradition, Dave and I decided to exchange gifts that night.  He gave me a piece of abstract art for above our bed (something that I asked for), a collage frame for our basement family room wall, and a rawhide.  I'm still not sure why he wrapped the rawhide and gave it to me, obviously that was passed on to Murphy.  If you ever want to see instinct at it's best, give a dog a bone and observe.

He walked around trying to find a place to bury that thing for nearly an hour

After presents, we went to sleep.  After all, we had a big day and the bulk of our traveling ahead of us!