Continued Christmas Festivities

I'm still in the Christmas spirit - and probably will be until sometime mid-January when the spirit(s) of "Sarah's Birthday Month" takes over - so here are more pictures and stories from the past week.

It didn't really feel like Christmas until sometime Christmas Eve, probably because this month has been so stupidly filled with mono and finals that I didn't go to a single Advent service and wrote about half as many holiday cards as I usually do. Also, I didn't finish my 20-page anthro research paper until Sunday the 21st, so by the time Christmas rolled around I was just figuring out how to relax. But that night we went to DJ and Carol's house in Hartford for a Christmas party, which was a blast. I didn't know most of the people there, other than the Smith-Horns, but it was still a lot of fun - the only thing that would have made it better is if Mr. Prenetta had showed up. This is going to sound strange, but it sort of reminded me that good times with friends don't stop when you're young - adults my parents' age know how to have fun, classy parties with the best of them. Also, everyone was wearing Christmas sweaters, which was awesome. At some point we started singing Christmas carols, accompanied by Carol on accordion and DJ on trumpet.

The boys are totally enthused about the singing.

Everyone crowds around the piano to sing.

Mom and Lisa share a laugh.

Rosie is officially the cutest Christmas pup.

Our lovely accompanists!

This was followed by the always-beautiful Christmas Eve service at church, complete with a singing of "Silent Night" by candlelight. The next morning we did presents, lazed around, and had the grandparents over for dinner. All the usual Christmas movies were watched (including It's a Wonderful Life, which leaves me in tears no matter how many times I see it), but the real highlight of the week was going to see A Christmas Carol at the Hartford Stage - the sort of "Christmas present for the whole family." It was a real spectacle and I can see why it's so popular every year. Flying ghosts! Snow falling from the ceiling! Cross-dressing humor! The play had it all. Fun for all ages.

Afterward we had a bit of a family photo shoot.

I won't make any comments about height.

The classic "three generations" shot with my two favorite women.

The most exciting gift I received for Christmas was a webcam from my brother! If you have one too, let me know and we can video chat on Skype! I'm having so much fun playing around with it.