Merry Christmas!

We have had a most delightful day, and I hope the same is true for y'all.

We started out with a new tradition, which will hereafter be called the Bitner Christmas Cry.  Instead of giving gifts to each other, we tried something new this year.  We all wrote something that we love and/or admire about each other, and before we opened gifts this morning, we read them out loud.  I don't need to tell you this got the tears flowing, although I would like to point out that Brad was the first to choke up.  

After gifts, we had a nice breakfast and set up the Bitner Weird Food Buffet.

  This just sits on the counter all day and we graze.  Best tradition ever.

We even had a Texas Christmas miracle:

  No, your eyes do not deceive you--that is actual snow.  This is the first--and hopefully the last--snow of the year.

This afternoon, Brad, Jess, and I went to see Les Miserables.  So very, very, very good.  Except for Russell Crowe, it was perfect.  We came home and promptly downloaded the music.  I used to listen to a cassette tape of the original Broadway cast on my sweet sound system in my sweet 1983 Toyota Corolla (The Rocket), but it has been years since I've heard the music. 

Today, I was still able to sing along to almost every song in my head though.  I'm pretty sure my fellow Texas drivers will get to watch me belt "I Dreamed a Dream" on my way to and from Walmart in the coming weeks.  I'll probably have to pull over, though, since just typing the title to that song makes me tear up after watching Anne Hathaway sing it today in the movie.  So yes, I'll be the 40-something soccer mom in the red Durango channeling a 19th century French prostitute on death's door while my Great Value ice cream melts in the back.  Because that's how I roll.