Christmas Eve was spent with my family at my house. It was nice to not have to travel. But all of the workaholics in my family worked a half day. Somehow the morning started with my brother being missing, but not really. He wasn’t around when my sister went to pick him up for work that morning and he wasn’t answering his phone. Now, my brother has a tendency towards bad luck, so we spent the morning in a half panic until Molly spotted him on the job site a few hours later.

Of course, our familial concern only made Mason crabby. So when he showed up with his contribution of burrito flavored beef jerky, he was angry that we cared so much to bombard his phone with messages and even go so far as to Facebook his roommate (who we haven’t met) to make sure he wasn’t dead.

But besides Molly spending her work day mentally planning Mason’s funeral and thinking about what to say in the eulogy she would give, the day was pretty laid back.

Andrew, my mom, the dogs, and I spent the morning playing cards.

Then we waited for everyone to arrive. It was a very odd holiday because there was no snow on the ground, our grandparents were traveling, and we didn’t give any gifts because we had decided to spend the weekend at Mystic Lake a few weeks ago. So we watched Christmas specials, stuffed ourselves with food, and played 13 rounds of Mexican Train.

Then, it was time for the traditional ugly Christmas sweater family picture. This year we didn’t have anyone to take the picture for us, so once again we resorted to the self timer.