We Wish You a Merry Christmas!!

So another Christmas has come and gone. Is it me or does it seem like every year it feels like Christmas less and less? I don't know if it's because it didn't snow this year, or celebrating Christmas without loved ones tends to take a bit of the twinkle out of the holiday. In either case it was still Christmas which only means one thing: lots of gifts!! Oh, and that whole "birth of Jesus" thing too. Kidding Mom! I respect the holiday and I'm not a blasphemer!

Anyway, for us Christmas is a two-day affair. On Christmas Eve we go to my in-laws and exchange gifts there. We all got some really great gifts...Kim and Brian got us a gift certificate to Longhorn (mmmm, steak); Bill gave Brian and Craig each sanders (regular and orbital); and I got one of the best gifts ever: a KitchenAid mixer from Bill!!! I think I honestly felt my heart stop when I opened that one. For those of you who don't see me too much, I love to cook and bake, so that mixer will totally come in handy when I need to make any kind of dessert or pierogies. Damn, now that I think about it, that means Kristen and Brian will bug me year-round for my homemade pierogies. But no worries, that just means I can make some for me and Craig too. :)

One of our traditions for Christmas is to have Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's, where we eat homemade pierogies. Normally my mom makes the dinner but since her hands are still weak from her double carpal-tunnel surgeries, yours truly made dinner instead. We then do wishes for everyone at the table for the New Year and then sleep till it's time to go to midnight mass at St. John Cantius in Tremont (church where Craig and I got married at). It's a BEAUTIFUL church and at Christmastime it is even more so.

Christmas Day started with Craig and I opening our gifts to each other and Milo opening his. This year Craig and I decided that instead of getting each other a ton of gifts, we'll get little ones and then take the money we saved to get a water heater for the house. Ours is 17 years old and is slowly starting to be not as efficient. Anyhoo, Craig and I opened our gifts and Milo opened his from Santa Paws (aka me and Craig). Damn dog made out like a bandit with the treats...in two hours he started refusing to eat his regular dog food and whined for the treats. Damn pig.

Then we went to my mom's for gifts and dinner there. We really did get a lot of useful gifts and there were so many that I really liked that I can't list them all here, so I'll list the ones I can remember off the top of my head: gift certs for me and Craig to a variety of stores (will definitely help when we look for a water heater), this awesome mosaic bowl from Rachel, "America (The Book)" from Angie (which is effin' HILARIOUS), and Euphoria perfume from my mom. There's a bunch more but that's what I remember as I type. Oh, and an ornament that Angie made for me that said "Aunt" on it...Rachel got one too and my mom got one that said "Nana."

After gifts is dinner where my mom made an AWESOME buffet of prime rib, popovers, roasted potatoes, veggies, and pierogies from last night. My mom is a great cook anyway but this year was maybe the best in the last 3-5 years. Just phenomenal. Then we went to Brian and Kim's for a second dinner and then we came home to chill. As I'm typing now Craig and Milo are crashed on the couch. See?



I know that this has been a long post so I'll wrap it up. I want to wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas and I hope that you are spending it with the ones that you love. There are people who I wish I could spend Christmas with but can't, so to them I say I love you and I wish you were here. Have a great night everyone!