23andMe, 23andUs

As per tradition, we had Christmas Eve eve dinner at Kevin's parents' house.

We had wanted to get there a couple hours early to finish wrapping the last of our presents so we could rest easy with that last bit of work out of the way.

I decided to stop by my mom's place on our way so that I could check on her and bring in her mail, since Taylor decided to accompany Ahlina back to Connecticut and spend her Christmas break up there until school starts again in January.

Much as I hate to say "as expected", my mom immediately took the opportunity to pounce on me with a list of demands: "I need you to lend me $500. I need you to go over all my finances with me. And I can't afford my storage unit anymore, so I need you to help me clean it out this weekend or next."

No please on the end.

Framed as demands instead of requests.

So I just said, "Mom that's not why I stopped by. I just wanted to wish you an early merry Christmas and bring in some packages that Taylor said had arrived. But I have Kevin and Riley out in the car and we have dinner plans we need to be on time for."

So I managed to break free, but the damage was done and the tone of my thoughts was set for the next few hours. I would be worrying about my mom and whatever situation she had walked herself into this time.

We arrived at Kevin's parents, where his family treats me as an actual person instead of as staff.

Kevin and I managed to knock out most of the wrapping by the time Kelly, Steve, and the girls arrived, so then we could just enjoy ourselves visiting :)

Kevin's mom made her usual lasagna, along with meatballs and a couple of really tasty loaves of bread.

Then we had some fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies for dessert and moved to the living room to visit some more.

At one point Kevin took his phone out and was just about to take a picture of all of us, but none of us noticed and we all happened to turn away right at the same time.

So with mock annoyance he said, "thanks everyone for turning your backs just as I was about to take a picture!"

And Kelly humored him for a few:

He also captured this Van Gogh styled picture when he stepped out onto the deck to cool off for a few minutes:

Considering that our living room looks like this right now:

...Kevin proposed to me and Riley that we exchange and open the majority of our gifts at his parents' after Kelly and Steve had taken the girls home.

Riley was absolutely crushed to have to open a bunch of presents two days early, but we were able to twist her arm and managed to convince her :)

I had already given Kevin and Riley each one early present the day before anyway. I got them each a custom pendant and cat figurine to commemorate Lucky and Penny:

Eventually, Kelly, Steve, Liv, and Hannah said goodnight and headed out, and Riley wasted no time in pointing out that we could open presents pretty much whenever at that point.

You can just see it on her face here:

Mom, can I? Canicanicanicanicanicani?

Let's see how Riley made out...

She got some beauty supplies (makeup sponges, hairbands, and such):

A zen garden:

A communication device to train Lucky to press different buttons to convey his various wants and needs:

Kevin gave her The Ring on DVD (which he's been urging her to watch for two years now).

Riley seemed pretty psyched at first:

Then Kevin reminded her,

Yeah, it's all great fun until Samara Morgan crawls out of your TV screen in the middle of the night ;)

We got her a s'mores making kit because she's constantly saying she wants to make s'mores:

Some vinyl records, after I managed to do some recon and find out what Riley is into these days.

Nobody's Clown by Los Yesterdays:

Igor by Tyler the Creator:

Cigarettes after Sex by... Cigarettes after Sex:

Which meant she would need a record player to actually listen to them:

I had also put together a stand for it two nights prior:

While Kevin assembled some cat shelving he had found back in the summer :)

And then it was my turn!

I've started collecting books on homesteading, home remedies, DIYing, and such for when we get the house, so Kevin got me a copy of the out of print Down Home Ways that came highly recommended in a homesteading forum he's part of:

Then there was... this mystery gift:

A beautiful vase that I could readily tell was hand painted lilacs!

...Except, I could also smell a very strong scent of lilacs as well.

And that's when Kevin said I had to keep digging!

Then there was one more:

I had just been talking about this shower gel earlier today and lamenting on how expensive it has become since Kevin bought me some for our first Christmas together!!

He also threw in some lilac scented bar soap, and still more Andes mints :)

Then it was Kevin's turn.

I got him some catnip infused treats for Penny and Odin:

And he had actually been the one to happen upon the entire series of Just Shoot Me! deeply discounted a few months back. So he already knew about that one:

Then a mini avocado plushie to match the big one we got last year:

And finally, perhaps a bit of an odd gift, I got him a shredder because he constantly tells me mine doesn't cut things small enough to be secure, and I know he shreds a lot of paper and cardboard to use as worm food when he keeps composting worms:

On our way home later, we got cut off by some college kid in a white Honda.

I took one look at his plate and went,

Bitch vibes? REALLY??

But as Kevin pointed out,

I mean, there's also a Long Beach Island sticker, so it's probably supposed to be BEACH vibes. But yeah, potato, potahto.

Oh well. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve eve anyway!

Dinner was scrumptious.

The presents were amazing.

And we're looking forward to Christmas morning with the rest of the family :)