Two and a half guidelines that we try to follow for Christmas day are these: no traveling and no cooking (and we have "Christmas Story" going on in the background during some part of the day--that's the "half"). Yes, there's some food prep (like fresh guacamole). And some minor clean-up. But no big Christmas Dinner.
No spending big chunks of time in front of a stove or sink. I usually try to prepare some finger foods in the days before and have assembly-only type meals ready to go on Christmas. Yes, there are only four of us, so it's easy to do. But I love that we can just be lazy and spontaneous that day.
This is a photo of one of our meals in progress. Sometimes we sit down. Sometimes we don't. We're just grazers, I guess. That's the way we like it.
There was just a bit "work" going on in the afternoon. Dylan was scheduled to fly to Colorado on the 26th to be with Emi's family. Her parents have cabin at Breckenridge; Dylan has spent time there before. He had tried, prior to driving out to see us Christmas Eve, to finish a name plaque he had carved for the cabin, but there just hadn't been time and his giant router machine was acting up. So, in the afternoon, he and I took the unfinished piece out to the shop and, with some of the tools we have and materials he'd brought with him, we were able to get it done. I should have snapped a photo, forgot.
Here's a picture of the three of us as we're splitting up early afternoon on Saturday. Tom's taking the photo. Rachel had to get back to SF because Mike was arriving the following morning from Chicago. We had to get Dylan to the airport in Reno. Our only concern had been that there were storms coming in and Donner Pass (over which we have to drive) is always tricky in the winter.
As it turned out, we had time to drop him off (eventual arr. in Denver: 1am), have a tasty dinner at Fresh Mex (while we waited to see if Dylan's reroute was going to work) and get back to the pass before chains were required. Here's a shot I snapped out the window on the way back over Donner, Nevada in the rearview.
It all went by quickly, but we'd had a fun Christmas. We hope you did too!
