Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.

Or Not. It's funny how Christmas songs are made for the far northern hemisphere. It's ok though, we'll take our abundant sunshine!

We started Christmas Eve off with some major cooking. By we, I mean me, Laura, and my mom. We cooked TONS of food while we listened to Christmas music and bonded. Fun? Yes. Around 5:00 our family went swimming at our neighbor's house. It was so stinking hot that the freezing water felt good. Then we got ready for our party at some other neighbor's house. They invited about 8 families over-we may have been the only Americans. There were some people from Australia and New Zealand and their accents basically made my Christmas Eve. Embarrassing moment from the evening: Laura and I had to provide a musical number.

Christmas morning was just like every other year, with my dad putting on "Alabama Christmas" as Laura and I walked into the living room to see what Santa brought.

Some presents that are worthy of mentioning that I got:
A nativity set from Argentina, Coldplay CD, a puzzle, money (yipee!), and a green purse that I picked out when my mom and I were shopping downtown. It was one of those impulse purchases. Looks like Jen is stepping up the "brave-factor" in her style, eh?

PS. The shirt I am wearing is from Victor. He knew that I like polo shirts, stripes, and pink. He found THE perfect shirt.
Laura and I had to take our annual in-front-of-the-christmas-tree shot. I am convinced this picture would have been less awkward if Laura had hugged me back.

Here we are about 5 years ago:

My, how we've changed.
Later on in the afternoon Laura and I worked on our "Teen Braithwaite Squad" movie. To watch it, see my videos on facebook. But be warned it is chuck-full of family jokes. Also, be warned if you've never seen Teen Girl Squad we will sound more like complete weirdos than usual. Christmas ended with a visit to some family friends. It was a GREAT christmas and I hope you had a good one too!