Pictures of the Great Unwrapping of 2008

Reader, beware: There will be many pictures in this post, possibly too many for you to really care about...but I wanted to document the gift opening because we couldn't be with our normal audience. If you want to see them bigger, I think you can click on them and get a full sized image. As I mentioned earlier, Travis and I decided to open Christmas gifts tonight. (Sadly, I couldn't go sing at Mass because of the stupid weather. The weather that is so bad out here would be easy to deal with in Minnesota, but Washington just is not prepared to deal with any of this. Bah.)

We didn't put up a tree this year, just wasn't enough time to make it a priority, but I did still break out a few Christmas necessities, like the stockings you see here on our mantle. I also "artfully" arranged our gift piles underneath the stockings. Mine is on the right side, Travis' is on the left.

Travis got me some bubble baths:

Travis is excited to open gifts...though he did ask me why I got him an envelope (right, like I wouldn't put something in it!)

We took turns. I opened up this box next, it had some awesome goodies. The Anne of Green Gables DVD set (my VHS tapes are really old) and a piano playbook for the musical Wicked, which I played a little on the piano after we were done.



Next Travis opened up the gift from my parents that I probably wrapped the nicest (I had some ribbon, wanted to use it):




Next I opened some shoes from Mom and Dad.


Then Travis opened up Stepbrothers.

We both got money from Grandma and Grandpa Hilton and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Terry, so I decided that I would spend that cash and get a couple of video games for me. :) I was able to get both Guitar Hero: Aerosmith AND Rock Band 2! (Lisa and Beth, get ready to play a little of these when you are here. I haven't played since I moved to Seattle...seriously.)


I will admit that we didn't take pictures of us opening every single gift (though you might think so as I have shown a blow by blow thus far), but we did take quite a few.

I got some awesome long sleeved Ts from Lisa and Beth, and let me tell you, Gap is serious about gift wrap. It took me a little while to figure out how to tear into it - it was sort of a heavy duty plastic overwrap, but it looked way cool.



Travis got several CDs by his favorite band from Lisa and Beth.



Travis' big gift from my parents was this really neat naval painting the German ship Bismarck in Hamburg port. He really really likes it, and it looks way better in person than it did online!




We got all sorts of great stuff again this year - we'd both like to say thank you to everyone for the wonderful gifts. We really appreciate them.

Do you feel like you've gotten a good grasp of opening gifts with the Hensches? It's not like being here. We definitely miss everyone in the family, and we are missing our Minnesota Christmas traditions. We are trying to start new ones here, beginning with the waffle breakfast and pot roast dinner tomorrow night.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!

-SKH