After very long lines and countless flight delays (dern that snowy midwest Cody made it to Birmingham at 11 pm Christmas Eve - seven hours late but he got here. I hope everyone else got to their various destinations safely despite the interesting weather and godawful transportation issues and got to celebrate Yule / Xmas / Solstice / Midwinter / etc with their loved ones too.

They let Cody and I sleep late since he insisted on wrapping presents when he got here. Then we had a fun morning and early afternoon with tea, coffee, and lots of presents. I got a bunch of fun clothes - yes a good number of them match my pink ipod - as well as books, shoes, movies, all kinds of fun stuff. Everyone else seemed very happy with their gifts too. We managed to get everyone something they had wanted and a bunch of things they would want if they knew about it as well.

Then we heated up the precooked by the country club ladies’ meal and had a nice dinner in the afternoon. We all bummed around playing with our various new toys then when the sun went down we got out the champagne and Christmas crackers! This is an English custom we picked up during our Xmases in Australia where you pop open these little wrapped presents with a small built-in firecracker popper and out come little paper hats, small toys, and a little joke. We’re totally into the English way to celebrate the holidays: drink copiously and wear silly hats. I think every holiday should be celebrated this way.

Susan and Bluejay (remember the Swiss Miss post?) stopped by and we had two extra crackers for them so they joined us and we had a marvelous time complaining about Bush and Company together. Tis the season right? :p

Cody and I are here until tomorrow then we’re flying back home. Having a lot of fun - and eating a LOT of good food but I do miss my little critter babies and will be glad to be home.

I added some of my favorite photos from xmas day to the photo journal so you might have a better idea of the silly hat thing.