The Swampy O'Neals: January 2010

So, another holiday season has passed and boy, did the O'Neals hit pay! We got some wonderful gifts from our wonderful families, we couldn't as for anything more. First, we were blessed to have two Christmas days instead of just one. One in Pierre Part, the night the Saints played the Cowboys (cry cry) and one in Petal, where we stayed for a few days. Donnys sisters went in together and got us (well, me really) a Kindle, an item I was not too familiar with. I had heard of it, but never really seen one except for that time at Chick-fil-a (which we have started going back to, BTW) when the lady behind me had one and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck she was doing. It's really cool. At first I was not sure I would be into it because I like to have the books up on shelves displayed around the house, but this little thing is really neat. I'm currently reading "The Second City Unscripted-Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theatre" by Mike Thomas. Donny's parents got Justin a Fisher Price wii-like game, with a baseball bat, tennis racket and golf club that you swing at the TV. They got us a wii, with the Fit Plus, which is a lot of fun. I've gotten my expert bike course down to 8.1 miles! We watched the Saints game at Donnys sisters house, while Justin stayed across the street at his grandparents house, playing with his biggest gift of all-a huge triceratops that Donny's crazy sisters picked up somewhere. You can sit on it and feed it and it roars at you. It's wild. I have no idea where I am going to put it. It's currently in our dining room next to the tree. Donny and I also finally decided to upgrade our phones, since Donnys was 4 years old and looked like a house phone. I got a Sanyo and Donny got a Hero, the Sprint version of the iphone. It's pretty sweet. The next Wednesday we packed up the Mountaineer and took off for Mississippi. My sister and her fiance drove in from Ohio as well, getting in late that night, around midnight. We all went to Christmas Eve mass, then returned to the house for our traditional wine, cheese, and Peter, Paul and Mary. My aunt and uncle came to visit for a bit too. It was nice. After Justin went to bed "Santa" (aka Billy, Sara, and Donny) put his new bike together. When Justin came out the next morning he was not interested in the bike at all. He wanted to go back to the bedroom and watch the TV. I think everyone standing around staring at him kinda made him shy for a minute. He never really got interested in the whole Santa thing either. We didn't even get a picture this year 'cause he didn't want to go. Oh well. We all enjoyed opening presents, the O'Neals got a new printer from my folks! Yea, been needing that for ages. And my sister got us a little camera for our computer because she wanted to be able to talk to Justin on Skyping. We had the family dinner at our house, which was a lot of fun. I think there were about 25 folks there. We went to Kathys house later that night, then out to the End Zone, where we saw a bunch of folks, as usual. I even saw an old roommate that I had not seen or heard from in about 6 years. The next night we went out to Purvis to see the Lewis lights, which have yet to get old, despite going year after year. Overall, it was a great holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!!!

Our Tree