A Christmas recap

Another Christmas season has come and gone. And man, did it go by fast! But it sure was a good one, filled with lots of family and good times.

Christmas Eve we spent the day with Jon's family. First, at his aunt and uncle's house, where we ate delicious meatballs and bacon-wrapped chicken wings to our hearts' content as we all visited and caught up with one another. The little kids gleefully opened presents and made a proper mess of the living room, the not-so-little kids were consumed by video games, and the adults milled about the house chatting and joking with one another. And then we had a delicious Christmas dinner of Sarpino's pizza! Why should Jon's mom and aunt slave away in the kitchen every year? They shouldn't, so they took the year off (though still spent hours making delicious appetizers). All in all, it was a lovely day.

Around 10pm we headed over to Jon's parents' house for our immediate family Christmas. Our nephews dutifully handed out our presents as we took turns opening them. Everyone was so generous with gifts! We bought the boys a "Yard of Sweets" - a yard length tube filled with gum drops - which they were thrilled about. Jon was equally thrilled to give it to them. Their parents, not quite so much, though they simply laughed and said they'd get us back some day. What ever do they mean? ;-)

Later that night (actually early morning by then) Jon and I sqeezed in a little time to open our gifts to each other. Jon gave me a nook e-reader, which I am so pumped about! Seriously, an awesome gift for the crazy reader like me. I worry my gifts to him did not compare to the awesomeness of this one, but I think he still very much enjoyed them. I love gift giving, I truly do, but sometimes it's hard to find that perfect gift that a person really deserves, you know?

Christmas Day morning we went to church and then headed over to my parents' house for a fun-filled two days! My sister and her fiance were in town, so we first enjoyed our immediate family celebration, exchanged gifts and had a delicious meal. Then, it was time for more important things - canasta! This has become a tradition, where we play hours and hours of the game every Christmas with my sis and her hubs-to-be. They taught us how to play, and we just love it. Well, who am I kidding, Jon loves any game - he'd live and breathe competitively if he could. But anyways, we played Saturday and Sunday for several hours, ending up 2-1, them, much to Jon's disappointment. This year was my mother's turn to host our extended family. So I decided we needed to make these cute table placecards:

They turned out pretty good, although I underestimated how much work they'd be. My aunt helped for about 3 minutes before she was ready to give up; my mom and sister lasted a little longer than that. By the time I started rethinking the idea, I already had 6 of them made and couldn't bear to give up then. Sure, the hot tamale noses were sliding down their faces, the pretzel antlers did not always cooperate, and it took us several attempts to get them to stand up in the styrofoam. But after an hour of dedication and patience, and a few hours in the cold garage, I think they turned out pretty cute! My godson found them delicious as well (I wonder if he took off the eyeballs first). My craftiness does not begin to compare to my aunts/cousins, but I gave it a shot!

On Sunday the extended family arrived, where we had a delicious brunch of apple french toast, cheesy potatoes, caramel rolls, fruit, eggbake...all delicious, thanks to my talented parents. I wish I could cook like them! All 16 of us crammed into my parents' dining room, which was impressive and cozy. We had a few family members missing, so I doubt we'll all fit in there again. But it was nice while it lasted. We then had our traditional White Elephant exchange, which proves to get weirder and more ridiculous every year. A few years ago, we all decided that we'd rather donate our gift money to a good cause instead of buy one of us something we don't really need. I'm proud of my family for doing this, and so far we have donated our money to the orphanage in Haiti that my parents are involved with. So the White Elephant exchange is meant to be something fun/goofy to exchange in place of presents. It seems to be getting more and more like a "clean out your junk and wrap it up" exchange for some of the family, so it may be time to move on to other things. I gave away some unused thank you notes and ribbon from the wedding, which my sister fortunately ended up with. The weirdest item? A VHS rewinder machine. The most surprising? My cousin willingly stole wall art of a tucan that has been passed around unwanted for a few years, for his bathroom of his new bachelor pad. We had a lot of laughs that day, and it reminds me how much I love and enjoy my family.

We got home at 11pm on Sunday night, totally exhausted and bellies full from 3 days of Christmas. It was a great Christmas season, living up to all expectations indeed! Now we have a boring winter ahead of us...