Christmas Pictures, Part III

We had the wonderful opportunity to travel from the forsaken desert to the wonderful Midwest over Christmas. First stop was my parents home where we spent Christmas. I always love going home, although I tend to revert back into big sister mode once I arrive. N says I even fall into my old accent, as if I ever had an accent.
We spent a lot of time doing nothing, which was fine by me. Although I did spend too much time playing games on N's laptop. S loved seeing the horses, Daisy and Kara. They were especially spirited one afternoon and Daisy kept putting on a show for us. She would gallop around the fence, jump the pond, and then come right up along where we stood, spraying mud at us every time. I can just see her laughing inside the equine head of hers. My little cousin, Cameron, was visiting that day and he thought it was just fabulous.
It was during this visit of my grandmother, aunt, and cousin that S fell in love with Brownie, my parents dog. Up to that point she had been terrified of her, even though she's one of the most laid back dogs ever. But my cousin, who's seven, loved the dog, and S loved Cameron. She followed him everywhere and since he liked Brownie, she did too. After that day she was enraptured. Poor Brownie had to endure S force feeding her bits of dog food, all while she was squealing as high as her little voice would go. It was pretty funny and I'm sad I didn't get it on tape.
My family has a tradition where we all draw names and then give each other gifts on Christmas Eve. It's fun because you get to open something a little early (which takes the edge off when you're little) and that's the only person you have to give a gift to which makes for easy shopping.
Here are the kids opening the Family Gift Exchange presents.S got a sticker book from Grandpa.Here M is eating the bow from the present he got for Uncle Chase. Incidentally, Chase also had his name and got him a toy phone.

Here are the Christmas Day pictures. We got up not so early but still earlier than everyone would have liked because my dad had to be at the fire station at 7am.
This is the one gift from us that S hadn't already opened at home.
Grandma with M