Well, we had a pretty great Christmas, but we usually do.  I just friggin' love the holidays.  I'm a total mush about it, and I know when I have kids of my own to spoil, it's going to be off the hook.  Ernie got all teary watching Andy open up his gifts (that kid is so great... 13 years old and has no qualms about hugging and kissing his aunt and uncle when he thanks them for his Christmas presents).

We got Andy Super Mario Galaxy, which he specifically asked for, then we also got him Sims2 Pets for DS, a Zelda DS case and skin, and a track jacket with the Hyrule logo on the front and back, which he LOVED.  I knew he would, because he loves those lightweight track jackets, and he loves the logo, and he loves Zelda stuff.  He was so excited about it and I know he slept in it last night.  Clarissa got the shaft, because she's been a total brat this year, especially since Thanksgiving, and Santa Claus doesn't just hand out gifts arbitrarily.  We had already bought her some Jordan XXIs from the outlet, but we decided not to give them to her, and instead got her a big bath and body set with lotion and perfume and crap.  I'll send the Jordans to Mariano next year.

I got Ernie his Zune, which he is loving, and lots of toys.  We really went overboard on each other this year (in other words, typical holiday).  He got two G.I. Joe sets, a Shipwreck action figure, some Under Armour shirts, a fleece pullover, Storm Shadow tshirt, some fun undies, two James Bond DVD sets, a digital watch, and I wrapped up the Jordan VIIIs that we bought the week before.  From Ernie, I got a personalized Ravens jersey (women's size, so I can wear it to school and still look "professional"), lots of new pajamas, some Christmas DVDs I had asked for, three DS games (NY Times crosswords, Brain Age and Flash Focus), a Transformers hoodie, Risk, and the VIIIs.  From my mom, I got DDR for Wii, which is AWESOME.  We had a little DDR party when we came back from my parents' this afternoon.  It was crazy.  I also got some nice bath stuff from Ernie's parents, and my mom bought me some Bare Escentuals makeup, a scrapbook calendar, some car supplies, and a supersoft bath robe.  Ernie was thrilled by the makeup.  They gave him some stuff for his jeep and a nice winter coat he had picked out.  My parents also got us a whole set of bakeware, which is very cool, and a very very nice Nativity set.  I've loved our family's Nativity set since I was a kid and loved setting it up.  There's just something magical to me about Christmas Eve night and the big dark sky and thinking about the whole Nativity scene.  It's always been my favorite part of Christmas, so now we have our own family set.  It's a really nice one, I know they spent a lot of money on it, so we were really grateful.  And I know they know how much I wanted to have a nice heirloom-type set.

Ernie's cousins are visiting from El Salvador, and they're actually really cool.  His cousin overseas the family bakeries and cattle farms, and her husband is a doctor, so the family is loaded.  Their three kids are really cool.  Patty is in college (she goes to a university in Spain), and the two boys, Edwin and Carlos, are in high school.  They go to a private American-style school where all the classes are in English, except for their Spanish and French language classes.  They're all really nice, which is great because when Ernie's parents dropped the bomb that five people were staying in our house for the entire winter break, we were not too happy.  As a result, Ernie's parents are sleeping in our room, the relatives are sleeping in Ernie's parents room, and Ernie and I are sleeping in one of our basements room in my childhood bunkbeds.  It's kind of fun, though.  We could have stuck the relatives down there, but we didn't want to part with the flat screen TV.

It was just a nice family Christmas, which I suppose is the point, but being married now, I just really felt like a grownup enjoying my family, and I also felt like we made my mom really happy.  I think this morning she took a few minutes to study Ernie and me and was happy with what we've turned out to be.  I know she's happy that I'm married to a nice wonderful guy, and even though she hasn't done any hinting, she's definitely looking forward to more grandchildren.  It was cool because they all came over to our house Christmas Eve and had dinner with Ernie's family and met the relatives, and I was just very happy to have everyone getting along.  Two nice families coming together, and I really do think we are all nice happy families.  We have our drama moments, but by and large, we are happy and love each other, and I can't wait to bring children into such a loving happy environment.  I know there are a lot of people who can't say something like that, so I'm very grateful for what we have,