Today was the day of our annual Christmas travels.  The morning started out at Nate and Jina's for a holiday breakfast and gift opening.  Vanessa, Jason, Roger, Ray and I made the trip up to Georgia, and were rewarded with pancakes, bacon, fruit and holiday cookies!  After breakfast we opened gifts (Ray's favorite part).

Nate, Ray and Jason all got the same warm, cozy ear-flap hat.  There was some debate as to who looked best in it, and the best way to wear it (flaps up?  flaps down?), so the boys had to have a pose-off! 

I think the only person who liked opening gifts more than Ray was Merlin.  Merlin's Christmas gifts (chew toys) were wrapped in a gift bag, which not only was he allowed to open, but did quite effectively!  Both Ray and I were impressed (while Sam has an affinity for curly ribbon and bows he has never figured out how to open a gift)!  While Merlin was thrilled with is chew toys (one of which he demolished within a half hour) he also suspected that any other gift bags might also have a gift for him.

Around noon we hopped in the car and headed south for part two of Christmas Day.  As we were anticipating some questionable weather, Ray and I decided to take the ferry, so that we could take the straight shot down 87 in New York (instead of those windy Vermont roads).  Actually, the ferry makes for a nice ride and Ray and I battled on Mario mini-games on our Ds's (Ray gave me a metallic pink Nintendo DS for Christmas - very Sex and the City).

  We spent the evening with my parents and Uncle John.  We exchanged gifts and had a super dinner: standing rib roast, mashed potatoes and so much yorkshire pudding that we had left overs!  Unheard of!  We ended the evening watching SABOTEUR, well Ray and I slept through the middle, but we did wake up in time to see the famous Statue of Liberty scene.

Every year Ray and I debate about getting a Christmas Tree.  It seems regardless of how long the debate goes on (to my delight) we ultimately end up with one!  This year we inexplicably made the decision early.  The plan today was to head out to a tree farm in Essex a cut down a Christmas tree ourselves. Unfortunately, our other errands lasted past dark, so that was no longer an option.  We ended up picking up our lovely tree from the gas station that is within walking distance from our condo.  Actually, it's were we get our tree every year.    The real convenience is that we can walk the tree back to the house and we don't have to fuss with putting it on the car. 

See how much Ray loves our new tree?!

Putting the lights on the tree was a whole other story!  I tried about six times to get our two strings of light to fit on our tree, got rather dizzy, and finally gave up!  Ray ran to the store and purchased three strings of fancy new LCD lights.  It only took him one spin around and the tree was done!  Our house feels rather festive now, time to get Christmas shopping!