My Purely Material Christmas Post

This is our first Christmas in Wyoming. There isn't any snow on the ground other than what is left in the shadows from the little bit of snow we got last week. Reid's parents came up from Castle Valley, UT to spend Christmas with us. That was nice! They also brought a truck load of gifts with them. Also nice! We went from having 3 gifts under the tree to more gifts than could fit under the tree. I must say I have no complaints. It took the pressure off the tree to be pretty, which is difficult for it since it is the cheapest plastic tree Walmart had to offer. Christmas trees don't grow around here and so they have to truck them in from...somewhere...and charge way too much for them. By the time we got around to looking at trees there were just the Charlie Brown trees left, but for $3 more we could get a fake one with the lights already on it. I really hate putting lights on a tree. Even though Reid usually does it I don't even like to watch him.

Anyways, back to the point. I got a bunch of stuff that I want to show off to people to make them jealous, but rather than bombarding facebook with my crappy cell phone pictures I thought I would be polite and just do a side post. (I know the 'jealous' thing may be a stretch on some items as not everyone has such refined taste in gifts as I do).

The first thing I opened today was my new ammonite mug Reid got me. Nerdy! He was replacing my favorite mug that broke in a Tommy related mishap in which an entire box of our mugs was dropped before it even made it onto the moving truck in Seattle. I was actually able to salvage my favorite mug and use it as a pencil cup, though. The gaping holes in the side where the handle used to be attached just don't allow for it to retain liquid anymore. Reid had me open the ammonite mug because we were about to have Grandma Tenney's infamous hot chocolate. I love it, but I can only handle it in small quantities. It has like 4000% of your daily recommended dose of dairy in one sip. Yep. That is a completely accurate fact. Well regardless, my digestive system believes this to be true.



Reid's mom made me a dinosaur quilt. I LOVE it! I can't believe she spent so much time to outline various dinosaur shapes for me in thread on fabric. Wow! Apparently when she was working on it she had her friends ask if she was making it for a grandbaby and she had to respond that, no, she was making it for her daughter in-law. Heh. I have already been informed that I may have to ship the quilt back to her in February so she can enter it in a contest. It will win. I have no idea what any of the contest rules or regulations are, but it will win. Anything that is this full of awesome needs a prize!



Continuing with the dinosaur theme Reid's sister Ashley got me a nice little dig a dino, a dig your own treasure kit (not dino) and a dinosaur marionette. Kona is incredibly interested in the marionette. She desperately wants the marionette to be in her mouth, but we are good at keeping it safe. I don't ever plan to let Kona have what I have termed 'mouth snuggles' with the puppet. It doesn't tend to end well.



Reid was very cute and in addition to getting me the ammonite mug I also received an ammonite canvas bag, an ammonite tank top and ammonite postage stamps. Whaaa? Postage stamps? Yes! So if I send you actual mail you better appreciate the stamp. The one bad part about the awesome postage stamp gift is that I have to give them away.



And you know what? You know what? I got a Doctor Who TARDIS cookie jar. When you open the lid the light on top lights up and it makes the very characteristic TARDIS wheezy whirring noise (that I'm not even going to attempt to spell) of a machine that is just about to travel in time, or in this case give me a tasty treat. Who loves me and is willing to make the kitchen clash for me? Reid does!! When Reid first put it under the tree he told us not to touch the gift and I didn't understand why. Unbeknownst to me Kona kept knocking into the box and causing the TARDIS noise to go off. I don't know how I didn't hear it. It's fairly loud and will be a nice indicator to me for when (not if) Reid thinks he needs to get into my treats.



Chrissy also sent me a box of goodies for Christmas. When it arrived I had Reid's mom look in it in case the items weren't wrapped. They weren't. So we got to keep it in Avon box it was shipped in on the other side of the living room as it was a terrible eye sore to have near the tree. Just kidding. We only kept it about 5 feet away from the other gifts. We got a Ben original painting and some clothes for me! With the clothes came a note from Chrissy saying "I'm not sure if you'll like the vest, but it will look good on you, so you have to wear it." Awww feel the love. Also when Ben gets older we will have a discussion about his use of white space. Or is that interior decorating? Oh well.



Reid and I also received an assortment of wonderful gift cards that we will DEFINITELY be putting to good use. We also received a lot more than I listed, so please don't be offended if you got me something that I didn't list. I promise I loved everything I got! I won't be returning a single item! heh I just got lazier and lazier as I was typing. You know how it goes.

I hope everyone had as lovely of a day as we did. Happy New Year!