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Pay no attention to the yawning. It's just the usual post-holiday exhaustion rearing its ugly head. Small price to pay for festive times.

My holiday funk was greatly diminished by talking with my seester on the phone for two hours on Friday. This free long distance is pretty awesome, heh heh. Not as good as actually spending Christmas with her, but much much better than nothing.

After I got done talking to her, I promptly fell asleep on the couch. Next thing I know, Dan's telling me it's 2am! I wonder if anyone else gets this tired from a simple conversation?

On Saturday, our friends came by bearing gifts. I get company so seldom that I'm afraid I held them captive and talked them nearly to death, heh heh. Ater they left, I fell asleep on the couch AGAIN for five hours or so.

On Sunday, Dan and I went to an animated light show put together by the University of Sioux Falls. It was done in time to music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Manheim Steamroller, and, believe it or not, Linkin Park. Pretty good source of free entertainment (although they do allow voluntary donations).

Also on Sunday, Dan and I watched "Love Actually" since I'd viewed Harry Potter the night before and was in the mood for some bonus Alan Rickman. After we got back from the light show, I watched the Alistair Sim version of "A Christmas Carol". And of course I fell asleep on the couch again, and Dan retrieved me about 4am.

Christmas Eve, Dan and I exchanged our few gifts after he got done at work; Dan has learned to cleverly disguise DVDs, heh heh. I was most surprised to get some foreign films, most notably a director's cut of "Cinema Paradiso" containing over 50 minutes of additional footage! Then we got cozy on the couch and watched "It's a Wonderful Life".

We went to church at 7pm, a different one than last year. This is the church we're thinking of joining next year (I've been dragging my feet because I never found anything I liked nearly as much as my previous church in Denver). It was very pleasant, a candlelight service with a choir, violin, a dancer, and an excellent reader.

We then drove straight from church to Dan's sister's house. We quickly snacked on some shrimp and cheese and veggies because our niece was impatient to get started on opening gifts. Time passes entirely too slowly when you're almost four years old, heh heh.

I brought my camera this time, knowing it would tire me out even more than just visiting, but I wanted documentation of our nephew's first Christmas. And it was a great deal of fun getting shots of our niece throwing her arms in the air like a prize fighter every time she opened something cool. I had thought that she already owned every Barbie made in the last three years, but I was mistaken.

And our nephew was hilarious. He's only four months old, so I figured he wouldn't really be that interested in presents, but he really responded to all the bright colored musical toys that his sister generously helped him unwrap. His eyes would just get HUGE, the most suprised expression I've ever seen on a baby.

Dan and I got something we very much needed, an office chair for downstairs. We have one chair at the computer, but if Dan is using it, I don't have any place to sit if I want to use the scrapbook area. So now I can work on my little projects when Dan's at the computer, yayyyyy.

The gift opening extravaganza was quite lengthy; Dan and I didn't get home until midnight! It's a wonder Santa didn't skip leaving anything for my niece and nephew since they were up so late. And guess who fell asleep on the couch again?

On Christmas Day, I awoke with a headache and pretty wiped out by the previous day. I just took it easy that morning and watched the Reginald Owen version of "A Christmas Carol". I had put it on the DVR to compare it to the Alistair Sim version; it was a good production, but I still prefer Alistair Sim as Scrooge.

One really awesome thing: we got a white Christmas! About six inches of snow fell throughout the day. Big fluffy flakes that reminded me of spring storms in Denver.

We went to Dan's parents' house about 4pm. Dan's mother prepared a huge feast with turkey AND ham, mashed potatoes AND sweet potatoes, two kinds of fruit/jello salad AND cranberry sauce, corn AND green beans as well as other stuff. There was so much food that we had to put some of it on TV trays because it wouldn't all fit on the table.

Something kinda scary happened during dinner. My throat was so dry that I got a piece of turkey stuck! I dashed off to the bathroom with a glass of water and drank and coughed until it finally came loose.

When I'm at home, when I eat meat, I usually put some gluten free steak or barbecue sauce on it to help it go down. When I'm elsewhere, most people put gravy on their meat, which I obviously can't eat, so I usually eat it plain. I should probably come up with an alternative solution to avoid choking to death in front of the relatives.

After dinner, I had nasty esophageal spasms, and my headache evolved into a migraine. I did hang around for awhile and chat while "A Christmas Story" was on, but I faded pretty fast and had to go home sooner than I had planned. I guess abbreviated celebrations are better than none at all.

Once home, I had some green tea and gradually began feeling better. I was able to watch two more movies on the DVR, "The Nativity Story" and "The Bishop's Wife". The first one was better than I was expecting, and the second was GREAT!

Surprisingly, I was able to get up at a decent hour today and go to aquacise. It made short work of me, though, and I did my usual doze off on the couch thing again this afternoon. My neck is less than thrilled about all this sleeping sitting up, but I can't take naps because I must remain upright to facilitate digestion; otherwise, I won't be able to keep anything down.

Today was the 12th anniversary of my first date with Dan the Man. We celebrated by going to Red Lobster with a gift card my seester had given us. I had my usual rock lobster (I try to stick with broiled dishes to avoid cross contamination) while Dan had one of those combo thingies.

Would like to go into more detail, but the yawns are getting ever wider. May try to watch one of the standup comedy shows I put on the DVR, either Bill Maher or George Lopez. Probably won't matter as I may fall asleep before it's over anyway.

Guess you could say I sleep in heavenly peace.