Christmas has begun

Extended family Christmas today. We're off to a pleasant start. I got some pretty cool loot, including some tasty prime rib, cheesy corn, homemade cherry dump cake, apple cobbler, and chocolate pie (we got to take home the leftovers) -- and a used Nikon DSLR (I think the autofocus motor doesn't work tho- shh, don't tell anyone!) and a Ryobi tap and die set. 
 

I was happy to supply the brothers in law with a new dash cam and a hiking head lamp that does a dim moonlight mode which I hadn't heard of before shopping for him. All in all a good day, and maybe the kids will let the Mrs and I chat up front on the 2 hour drive home. 
 

The OTHER bonus is that this begins two whole weeks off for both of us. It's been a while. This will be nice. 

Wife started baking cookies this afternoon.
 

There's still so much I have to do.

I put up the top 1/3 of the tree !

To all of you that bake, or happen to be married to, or otherwise have an SO that bakes...

My best advice to you?  Buy a Kitchenaid stand mixer.  Without a doubt, my favorite new power tool!  Costco for the Win!

In reply to Geoffrey :

Get the big 7qt one, worth it for the extra capacity. Just make sure to tighten the screws every 2-3 years if it gets heavy use. Ours starts "walking" around with bread dough and the internal screws back out.

Well Merry Christmas!

It doesn't really end for us for another week or so since we have a couple little people with birthdays coming up, so it's nice that it stretches out!

To everyone else, I hope it was a good time of being with loved ones and feeling loved!

It started last Wednesday for me. Then more visits on the weekend and Monday.
 

Fortunately I got the unpleasant parts of the family visits done first. Today, tomorrow, and into the weekend is just fun with people I enjoy. 
 

Im looking forward to getting back to work.