a merry little christmas

 

 the best christmas gift we got came a little early, in the form of the

most precious baby ever conceived.  but we still celebrated by

showering each other with more gifts on the actual day.

richard's main gift was an electric acoustic guitar, but i/santa still filled his stocking
with groupons and candy.  between the two of us, we ended up with movies in
the double digits and a boat load of candy.  which will make for some good
at-home date nights.

after our first christmas morning as a little family, we headed out to

my parents' house to find that their satanic golden retriever had eaten

the breakfast casserole.  dad saved the day by whipping up some

french toast, and then we got to more presents.

 

i think my favorite gift of the morning was the painting that shae did for us - 

the baby is martin (obviously), the guitar is for richard, and the pink flamingos

are for me.  he is super talented, and we are super lucky he wants to join our

crazy family.

marty got plenty of attention.  as he should, since he's the pretty much the

greatest thing ever.

 

we ended the porter family gathering by taking family photos.

these two are pretty much a family of their own already, but they're making it

legally official this fall - shae proposed to sarah the sunday before christmas, she

said yes, and we couldn't be happier!  not only do we love him, but richard is

pretty stoked that the boys will no longer be outnumbered.  they will, however,

still be outcrazied by a large margin.

 

we opted out of traveling to the grandparents' houses to avoid any sickly family

members that may have infected our little guy, so we headed home.  it was kinda

weird, but pretty fun.  richard made delicious cookies, we watched movies and ate

junk food, played boggle, and then richard remembered that he'd saved one last

gift for me to open....

  

he handed me a bag, and i opened it to find wires, electrical tape, and a few

other "handy" objects that i was sure i'd never be using.  but before i got to the

last thing in the bag the thought popped into my mind: a dishwasher!  i asked if

that's what it was (if i'd waited to see the last object i'd have known for sure because

it said "dishwasher" on it), he said yes, and then i jumped across the room to tackle

him with happy, thankful, and tearful hugs and kisses.  then he took me out to the

garage to show me that it was no joke.

 

i was a pretty happy camper.  how could i not be with an amazing husband,

the best baby known to man (and any other species), and a dishwasher?!

merry christmas.