We had ourselves a merry little Christmas

Before I start posting about presents and eating, I should mention that my true beliefs on the subject of Christmas are summarized nicely here. Yes, Christmas the day has passed for this year, but Christmas the concept is applicable year-round.

Kevin got me a lovely Swarovski necklace and bracelet set for Christmas. I hereby declare their packaging "the other blue box." Not that I'm familiar with Tiffany's marketing or anything.

Kevin asks for the same thing every year, and this year I had to order a two-pack from Amazon:

Laura and Owen received some lovely gifts as well, including this replacement for a mini-copter Laura wrecked awhile back:

Laura also got her own iTouch -- and immediately launched into something called Pocket Frogs, which I'd never heard of.

Owen added to his Hot Wheels collection and now is able to launch all manner of non-racing vehicles down a forced-elimination track.

This apparently irked a larger-scale Francesco Benoulli he already owned, whom I found sulking under the music stand on the piano.

Yesterday was a somewhat difficult day for Owen, however, because he faced the realization that LAURA HAS AN ITOUCH. And since Kevin and I both now have iPads, that means he's the only one of us without a personal electronic device. There was a bit of whining and crying over that little fact. He managed to sort of comfort himself with a non-electronic Angry Birds game.

He also was able to comfort himself with the eating of ham and a visit to the house of some friends later in the day. (It's one of his favorite spots in town because they have different Thomas trains than we do.)

Among other things, for our lunch at home I made macaroni and cheese in 75 easy steps.

Our contributions to the dinner included peppermint meringues (I just substiuted crushed peppermint candies for the chocolate chips) and cranberry-swirl cheesecake.

Yep, it was a delicious little day.