'Twas the Day After Christmas

.... and all through the house is far too much candy and nary a mouse.

All of my "kids" had a great time and enjoyed their gifts - the dog got a new hedgehog squeak toy to play with and the cat received a catnip toy from Santa that she is absolutely freaky about. Here they are, guarding:



And this kid had fun, too:



However, nothing much went as planned.

On Christmas Eve (day), my husband and my sister-in-law got stranded when the snowmobile broke down. In the middle of nowhere. On a day when few people are on the trails.

Yup... they almost ended up snoozing in the great (cold) outdoors. I'm trying not to envision the kind of Christmas we and the the rest of the family would have had, wondering where they were. There's no cell phone service there and, I'm told, over 600 miles of trails where they were stuck, so finding them would have been like the old needle and the haystack thing.

BUT, one couple did come by and let hubby and SIL squish onto their sleds (they were riding "one-ups" which are not built for two, but apparently they managed).

Christmas was a little tough for hubby, though, since he had to leave the sled disabled on the side of the trail and spend all day wondering if it was okay.

Today is the Resuce Mission. Three men, two trucks, one trailer... and hopefully one still intact sled that just needs an electrical tweak. Fingers crossed.

Bad sled.

Christmas Day, we spent W-A-A-A-A-A-Y too much time opening gifts in the morning and the turkey took an hour longer to cook than I had planned (why?? I've never understimated by this much... ever). Luckily for the hungry hordes, I was also cooking a bit of nitrate laden pig butt - so all was well. Even I had some, and I haven't eaten pig in a year.

We thought we were going to be late to the in-laws, but -- as it turns out -- we were the first to arrive, followed immediately by everyone else. It was tons of people in a very small and too warm house, but a good time was had by all.

We ate too much food and too much sugar, and we were all exhausted by the time we got home, but all-in-all, raw turkey and broken sled aside, we had a good Christmas.

DD can't wait until next year.