Christmas Part 3

Christmas morning I loaded the car with presents and cake balls, made the mandatory stop at Starbucks, doubled back to the house for my flat iron and then hit the road to Houston!

I arrived at about 11:30a which gave me plenty of time to change into my holiday clothes (complete with new jewelry from the hubs) and help Mom and Dad with a little set-up (though they really had it covered). It also gave us time to open the Christmas box from Kevin which he instructed us to open early. When I saw our gifts I knew just why - crystal drinkware engraved with "World's Best Sister" and Mom and Dad respectively. FANTASTIC. We drank from those all day.

We had 13 people at the Lowe Family Christmas this year and it must have been the year of the prime rib because that was a part of the menu just like at Nancy's.

I hung out with family, got the latest scoop from everyone and ate lots of good food. For our gift exchange this year, we traded photos, mostly old, which sparked a lot of fun conversations about different family stories. My Uncle Larry also brought an old home video of my third birthday party which was HILARIOUS. My favorite three parts in that video were...

• 5 year old Robin jumping out of the sandbox, running to her mom and yelling "A dime! I found a dime!" Ah, if only life were that simple today.
• Uncles pushing/throwing the cousins down the slip-and-slide. We got way more slide and did way less work.
• Mom, 8 months pregnant with Kevin and wearing her 1980s pregnant lady swimsuit, eating a piece of cake and telling the camera "getting fatter with every bite." Awesome.

After the whole clan left it was just three. We FaceTimed Ross in for some present opening, specifically when I opened the brand spankin' new Blu-Ray player from Mom and Dad and when they opened the Houston Symphony tickets we gifted them with. Other present highlights include many new pairs of shoes for me, some of our fav movies on Blu-Ray from Kev and one of my favs, Dad got Mom a book of bed-and-breakfasts from which she gets to pick their 2012 vacation. The book even came with a voucher for one night free at any B&B listed. So cool!

For a final Christmas highlight, here's a video of Lexi playing with the new puppy blankie Kevin and his girlfriend, Carley, sent her. We're not sure if she thinks its a chew toy or a blanket but either way, she loves it.