Christmas with the Dunns

This Christmas was wonderfully eventful! I was fortunate enough to have 12 days off from work, so we decided to spend most of our time with family. We headed up to Toccoa on Tuesday evening and spent Christmas Eve and morning with the Dunns.

Christmas Eve is full of traditions for every family. The Dunn family is no exception. My mom decided to do our big meal on Christmas Eve, and she was kind enough to include mostly vegetarian dishes this Christmas. Once dinner is over and we've consumed unhealthy amounts of dessert, we always read the account of Christ's birth found in Luke. After the reading my dad sings "The Christmas Song" also known as"Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire". Then we each open one present. This year the must-have present for the Dunns was blankets. My family loves blankets. Even in the summer, you will find us all wrapped up in a blanket if we're all together in the family room. We call ourselves the Blanket Nation. This Christmas, my family decided to make David an official member of the Blanket Nation with new Woolrich blankets for all the boys.


Then Dawson, who had been carefully contemplating which gift he would open, made his selection. We all waited in anticipation, while Dawson opened the package, and then every child's worst dream came true-the selected gift was a pair of pants.


Dawson made his best attempt to be grateful, but I could tell that he was holding in a reaction that is best let loose in a remote corner of the house. While Dawson emotionally imploded, the rest of us opened our presents. David and I gave my family Blokus (thanks Goodwin family for getting us hooked!) and we proceeded to play for much of the night.
After several rounds of Blokus, we broke out Rock Band and Guitar Hero. My mom decided to show us what's what with a round of "Through the Fire and Flames".


Before Mom started playing, Dawson decided to head to bed. To completely understand the next events of the night, I must first explain the catalyst of the whole situation. David and I own a cat. Her name is Lyra and she is insane. She has never fully adapted to living with humans, and so from time to time she will react to human interaction in a manner befitting the freak she is and the end result is usually a scratch or some sort of minor skin wound.
Enter my 10-year-old brother, who is afraid of oh so many things. Lyra decided to stake her claim on the stairs, and so if my brother wished to go to bed, he had to walk the gauntlet and pass her. Well, I think we all know what happened next. Lyra was playing on the stairs and Dawson was hanging out at the bottom trying to figure out a way to make it to bed without actually having to walk past her. We try not to baby Dawson when it comes to his fears, so we told him to just be brave and walk past her, because we knew she wouldn't do anything to him. Of course, in his fearful mind, he pictured her clawing him to death, or some other horrific image, so he refused to budge.
All the while, my mother is trying to play "Through the Fire and Flames" on Guitar Hero. Intermittently she would scold Dawson, while keeping her eyes on the game. Finally, the tension between Dawson and Lyra became too much for Dawson to bear and the tears started to fall. So my mom, in a fit of aggravation turned to Dawson and said, "if you make me put down this guitar, I'm going to get you!" I'm pretty sure no other mother, besides perhaps Lita Ford (I could she her saying that), has ever said those words to her child. Dawson ran up the stairs, went to sleep, and seemed to forget all about his traumatic experience, just in time to open presents Christmas morning.

Another Dunn family tradition occurs every Christmas morning with the opening of our stockings. It has long been a tradition to give every family member several scratch-off lottery tickets, with the hopes of a big win. Well, in years past, the most I've won is maybe one dollar or a free ticket, but this year I won $150 on a single ticket! It may not have been the jackpot, but it was my personal best, and I was pretty excited.

Me with scary morning hair and my winning ticket

After we opened our stockings, my mom made hot chocolate and we all proceeded to open gifts. My favorite gift by far from my parents was my new J Crew coat.


It is black and lovely. I'm sure I will be wearing it all winter long (if "winter" will ever come).
We all opened presents and had a wonderful time. Especially Dawson.


This Christmas at the Dunns was very memorable and fun! Thanks to my family for all of the gifts and all of the love.