would you believe that i didn't take a single photo over christmas?

it's true. i packed my camera. and my tripod even. but never once did my camera leave it's case.

the truth is that i really *do* love taking photos, and i love scrapbooking. but i'm not what you would call an "event" scrapbooker - that is, i don't define my albums by including one layout for every event. i'm more of a "moment" scrapbooker - if i can say that without sounding overly cheesy and sentimental. i scrapbook to remember life as it is, not a chronology of events. so i am okay with not taking photos over a major event. i'm "at one" with my lack of photographic proof, you might say... but i digress. i didn't start this blog to discuss my scrapbooking philosophy. i meant to talk about christmas - so moving on...

matt & i, as you might expect, have settled into a traditional method of celebrating each christmas. most people finish their shopping on our about december 23rd and begin celebrating on the 24th or even waiting until the 25th. but when i went out for my annual "last minute shopping trip" (hers, not mine) with my mom on the 23rd, it was really for her benefit - matt & i were already hurtling headfirst into our Three Day Christmas Celebration.

it began with brunch with his immediate family saturday morning. luckily, his mom is flexible and grew up in a huge family herself, so her philosophy is that christmas doesn't happen on a specific day - it happens when everyone is in the same house at the same time. anyway, games were played, lunch was had, gifts were exchanged. it didn't go exactly according to plan, but it went.

sunday - christmas eve - morning, we were up extra early for church, as it was my first sunday on-staff. between the morning service and being back for the annual candle-lighting service later that evening, we rushed home to pack, have lunch, lock down the house for the weekend. back to church, successful candle-lighting service, and then we rush to the ferry - hoping we didn't just miss a boat. a half hour ferry ride, a half hour drive, and we arrive at my grandparent's farm. grandma is as relaxed as i've ever seen her - because we're later than usual, and she's had more time to prepare. (it's normal for us to not have dinner until around 9pm, but still - we were later than usual.) after a leisurely dinner with the family, our annual phone call with my trans-atlantic aunt, our gift exchange, and goodbyes to mom & bob, and we head to bed - exhausted, but with more to look forward to.

but that's where all of the lovely christmas tradition turns sour this year...

you see, i went to bed feeling strange... a little "iffy", you might say. i had a little trouble getting to sleep, and then awoke at 4:15 and knew immediately that i'd best get to the bathroom before i saw dinner on Instant Replay. sure enough, dinner came up - and i proceeded to be terribly ill for the remainder of the night. matt's not a great nurse-maid in the middle of the night - he sleeps so hard that i'm more likely to get some comment about washing his hair in motor oil than a sympathetic remark. (luckily, he makes up for this by being a fabulous caretaker at my beck-and-call during the day - it just makes for lonely nights.) so i struggle through it, sleeping off and on, when i'm not busy... well, you know.

fiiinally, the rest of the house wakes up. i'm pretty sure that i've emptied my entire digestive system of its contents and that it's all over... but it's not. i pick at my breakfast - torn between severe disinterest in food, and not wanting to be rude. eventually, i'm fairly confident that my stomach can "hang in there" long enough to brave the 50 minute drive to my dad's, so we pack up and head out.

thankfully, the worst of it was indeed over and we made it to dad's without any additional displays of gastronomic pyrotechnics. i was still feeling yucky and the nasty cold/cough that seemed to jump me while i was already down for the count added to my problems.

we did our best to celebrate at dad's. food (for matt, certainly not me), gifts, even a christmas carol game, but we were both in bed early christmas night. and probably not a bad thing either.

so, really - i guess there wasn't much to take pictures of... but i'm okay with that. really.