Christmas has come and gone...

Ahhhhh the food is gone and the gifts are opened. 

Well, ok so the food is not ENTIRELY gone.  There are leftovers in the fridge of course - some ranch potatoes and some broccoli casserole still hanging around just waiting to add another layer to my thighs.  But holy smokes what a great dinner we had on Christmas eve.  Don did a duck on the grill, and he did an AMAZING job with it.  The thing about duck - it's pretty rich...but it's also a pretty small bird when compared with a pheasant or a turkey.  Our duck was 6 pounds.  We didn't eat it all, but came pretty darn close.  Is it my imagination, or are ducks all dark meat?  It was SO YUMMY.  Really - pure yum.

My husband is (as I've called him before) a grill God.  I don't know how he does it, but he does it and he does it well, so I don't ask any questions.

Christmas morning came bright and early (after the elves were up far too late).  It was a great morning though, the kids were over the top excited, and Paige about lost it when she finally noticed that big ole' Barbie house over next to the tree.

It was pretty funny, she didn't notice it for a good 5 minutes...how she missed it I'll never know.

I made Ina Garten's Holiday Sticky Buns for breakfast Christmas morning.  A carbohydrate nightmare, but OMG they nearly rivaled the duck.

Nearly.

I sent 6 of them home with my good friend Donna, she has 4 nine year old boys and a (?) year old husband - I knew they'd get eaten UP, and quickly.  If they'd have stayed here, they'd have been, you guessed it, eaten UP...and of course there'd have been yet ANOTHER layer added to my thighs.  What is it exactly about the holidays and thighs?

Don shopped for me at Pandora this year - he bought me the most beautiful charm bracelet a woman could ask for - and I in turn bought him a new locking console for his jeep.  It's got a hidden compartment for his stereo deck, that locks, and it's also iPod compatible.  It was something that I felt he deserved after his previous deck was stolen on our trip from Washington to South Carolina. He installed it today and was so stinking cute - like a giddy school boy.

Ultimately, this has been an amazing Christmas.  Not because of any charm bracelet or new vehicular lock box.  Not because we had an amazing duck or delectible sticky buns.  What has made this holiday season so phenomenal has been the company. 

Our little family is together for a whole fourteen days - and we do not take these moments for granted.  There are material things that will always make us smile, and make us feel good - but the best part of it all is the memories made.  The time appreciated and not taken for granted.  The love that we share as we cuddle together and watch silly movies and goofy reality TV (the kids still lose their minds over AFV and Wipeout). 

What we have is amazing, and beautiful, and real.  It is something we fight for and live for and love for. 

We are the Rhine family. 

We are unbreakable, unstoppable, and undeniable.

Merry Christmas..with love.

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