21st Century Family Christmas

Miles away but still together. Thanks to iChat, we got to have "face-to-face" time with both sides of our families.

Kevin's on Christmas Eve:

That entire slew of people is most certainly Kevin's side of the family. And I'm not even talking cousins or distant relatives. With the addition of 4 babies this year, the Peek family Christmas was anything but quiet. We were so thankful that they took the time to include us via the web.

On Christmas morning, I wanted to make Kevin a special breakfast: homemade monkey bread. I got out of bed at 5:45 am (which is just a crime on Christmas, I'd like to add!) to put the dough in the bread machine so that he could eat at a time somewhat resembling breakfast. In my sleepy stupor, I realized I was out of eggs. Bother! Kitchen 1, Becky 0. There's certainly no where to get an egg that early in the morning, so I went back to bed with my tail between my legs. Kevin later went out in the cold to buy me some eggs but by the time the market opened and the eggs obtained, the monkey bread would have been ready after lunch. So we settled for pumpkin spice cake instead.

Don't let this picture convince you that I have any prowess in the kitchen. After cutting Kevin's monster slice, I put the rest of the cake back in the oven because the middle was still gooey. Then, in classic Becky-style, I forgot about said cake and it proceeded to burn. Bother again! Kitchen 2, Becky 0.

In the background, you can see our Charlie Brown Christmas tree--all 2 meters of it! We still couldn't get the lights on one circuit this year, so our tree is still known as the "Seizure Tree." Fading, flashing, blitzing, twinkling...you want it, our tree does it all at the same time!

This is one of Kev's gifts I bought for him. It may look like a boring fleece to you but in a land where nothing comes in this poor, tall man's size, it's a wardrobe jewel.

No, you will not find any Christmas pictures of me. The reason? My parents bought me a new f1.4 lens for my Rebel, which in non-camera talk means totally-amazing-but-near-impossible-for-anyone-but-me-to-use. So if you were ever disappointed in how many pictures on this blog are NOT of me, prepare yourself for further disappointment.

Later on Christmas night, we spread three time zones to bring the Corbin clan together:

Well, I guess you can't technically say it was Christmas night because actually it was 9 am on Christmas morning in New York where my brother lives and 8 am in Texas where my parents & aunt were. We all made sure that our family mascots--the dachshunds--were also in attendance. I guess they're like dog cousins of something weird like that.

Merry Christmas!