Wiley Riley

I promise, I did not disappear after Christmas. I worked the day after, had yesterday off and now I'm back today. Plus we've had a sick horse here and that's pretty time consuming. Anyway, Wiley Riley...his actual name is just Riley, he's one of our blood donor kitties and he likes to lick you. He can exfoliate your skin like nobody's business with that tongue of his.

Stretch...


And stretch again.


Why are you torturing me?


I'm done with you now.

FFR

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve in our house constitutes two major traditions. For one, we have finger foods. Appetizers of all sorts from jalapeno poppers to sliced cheese to miniature corndogs and fish sticks. In all reality, this is a chance to clean out our freezer of all the appetizers we have seen in the last year and immediately thought, "Oh! Those look tasty!" Then they sit in our freezer for 8 or 9 months because, come on now, who has appetizers with dinner at home? I don't know about you, but most of the time, it's hard enough just to make dinner, let alone appetizers. We leave that to the people in the restaurants, who get paid to make us appetizers.

Anyway, last night, we completed our first tradition and had a whole bunch of appetizers for dinner. We successfully cleaned out our freezers. It's empty enough for next year's ideas of grandiose dinner nature. I don't have any pictures of this tradition. I was at work until it was already picked over and that does not make for a good photo.

The second tradition in our house is opening our gifts. We don't do the Christmas morning thing, it's a Christmas eve thing. Tonight we'll have a big dinner with Prime Rib (another tradition) but last night it was all about finger foods and gifts. It's important to note that when we have children, we will be taking over my old tradition. We will all open one gift on Christmas eve and open the rest on Christmas morning with cinnamon rolls. Messy, messy, drizzling, dripping...diabetes inducing...cinnamon rolls. Now...where was I? Oh yes, I want my children to experience the magic feeling of Christmas morning. Oh, and I forgot, we need the bacon with those cinnamon rolls. Heart attack AND diabetes. Wouldn't be Christmas without it.

This is one of my presents from MIL J. A bear hat! I like it! I feel like I'm channeling Amy from my work. She would totally wear this hat. I'm going to have to go kindergarten on this hat and put my name in it so she won't steal it.

On a side note. We had a memorable quote on Christmas Eve. Courtesy of MIL J: "Don't bite my balls!" Ah, family time. I'll leave you without explaining that.

Additionally, according to Working Man, this is when you know you are married:

Where else is it supposed to dry?

Merry Christmas to all of you,
FFR

The other ornaments

I told you I would get pictures of the other ornaments next year but, well ahead of schedule, I got them out yesterday. It's all Working Man's fault, he's the one who pulled out the ornament boxes. So here they are, starting with 2008:

This was before Working Man and I had found a common theme.


He let me pick the ornament without any input from himself.


You know how that first part of the relationship goes. It's still a little awkward and you still don't quite have all your inside jokes yet. So that's where this ornament comes from, that place where everything is still new.


This one comes from 2009, and it comes from the place where we had the chance to get inside jokes and had the chance to find a lot of common ground in western themes.


This is the one Working Man had to fix for our tree. The presents weren't hanging right or something like that, I can't even remember now.


For humor's sake, he should have buttcrack showing. That's MIL J's writing on his back.


That's my writing on the pooped-out presents.

FFR

This is...

This is Honey:

She's very cute.

This is Honey watching Twilight:

No seriously. She's watching Twilight. I tried to tell her it would melt her brain if she didn't laugh at it but she insisted on watching it. Working Man insisted we watch it to know what everyone was talking about. I've never laughed so hard at a movie. Nor has he. Honey would have laughed, if she could have. But her brain melted instead.

This is a cat at the hospital, his name if Figaro. I call him Figgy. He is one of our blood donors:

He's awesome. I love him.

This is Figgy brushing himself:

He luffs the brush. More than me. I should become a brush.

This is a sense of humor at work:

Tell me, which movie do "TPI" reports come from?

FFR

Our Christmas Ornament

Every year, Working Man and I buy an ornament together. Two years ago, we bought a snow man glass ornament with round foam balls for the snow. Last year, we bought an ornament that was partially broken and Working Man had to fix it. It was too good to pass up though. This is this years ornament:

It gets better.


Oh, oh, what's inside?!


Hey look, it's Working Man in 20 years!


I like the cow, this thing is heavy!


And as tradition, I wrote the year on the bottom of the ornament.

When we dig out the other ornaments, I'll take pictures of them too. Probably won't be until next year. We really couldn't do Christmas with the puppies. They just destroy everything.

FFR