The Top Ten of Christmas

Some of the best parts of Christmas this year, in no particular order:

1. Caroling. My family doesn't sing, so instead we cranked some Trans-Siberian Orchestra and did air guitar/piano/violin. We had a conductor and a strobe light and groupies and everything. We got some great reactions from the peeps who were lucky enough to witness my family's talents.

2. Spending time with my family and becoming even more attached to my niece, Autumn (Auggie).

3. Taking these pictures. Let these blow your mind.

4. Watching movies together. Hugo, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, And of course, the Christmas classics. It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, etc.

5. Playing games. Bananagrams, Truth and Lie, Pictionary Telephone, and some other fun game that I don't know the name of that Laura and John taught us.

6. Making homemade sugar cookies.

7. Actually sleeping.

8. Christmas Eve dinner. What a feast, even though I didn't eat the pork. But trust me, IT WAS CALLING MY NAME.

9. Seeing my dad bust a move to the music I was cranking.

10. Feeding the homeless. My family went down town to the Fremont Street area of Las Vegas and served a bunch of homeless people dinner. My mom's friend organized the whole thing, so my mom made some of her insanely good homemade bread (she grinds her own wheat, people) and we headed down there and served up some chili and crackers, bread, cookies, hot chocolate, candy canes, and other goods to many homeless people of Las Vegas. Some came back for seconds, thirds...FIFTHS. It was such a cool experience. One dude was in a motorized wheel chair and we all thought it was so great that he would finish one bowl of chili, put the pedal to the metal and blast on over for more.

Amen.