Christmas 2013

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!  We certainly did in our household and it has been a busy week.  R and I spent Christmas Eve in our traditional way by spending time together and cooking a great holiday meal.  I was even able to use my new wedding china.  R made some delicious pink red cocktails just to be extra festive.

I set the table for a yummy (and quick!) eve dinner.  We split a Greek salad, purchased pre-made from the grocery deli.  R steamed 12 oysters for an appetizer and we made carbonara with she crab.  The whole meal took about 20 minutes to prep and cook.

 Dinner was too good for words, I'm hoping we can have this same meal on other non-holiday occasions.

 Oh and Santa came while we were eating.

I got a pink Swingline stapler.  I told R back in the Spring that I wanted a pink stapler...and I love Office Space so Swingline is really the only brand it could be.  I'm so surprised that he remembered.  He also bought my favorite tea, a rare treat for me.  And we are wearing Christmas pajamas!  No fancy attire for us, we were comfy the whole day.

R did an excellent job on my gifts, I received a beautiful sweater, my favorite lotion, movies, and I have something special that still hasn't arrived.  R got lots of great goodies as well, including a new coat.

On Christmas morning we woke up early, made some coffee, and traveled East to see R's family. His mom had prepared breakfast appetizers and we took a break to open gifts.  There were 11 people over and her dining room was completely overwhelmed by stockings and gifts.  There were gifts all over the house actually.  She gave each couple a monogrammed, red Santa bag to help us gather our gifts to take home.

 Also to mark my official entry into the family I had my own embroidered stocking.  It's so pretty!

 And gifts happened...

 I received a place setting of china and new duck boots along with numerous other goodies.  R received lots of hunting gear and a new drill among many other presents.

 We ate lunch with R's family - steak, loaded potato casserole, and salad.  It was delicious!  We left soon after the meal to travel to my mom's house.  And our newest family member napped in my Aunt's arms the whole time dinner was being prepared.  This is my youngest nephew, Levi.

 I didn't take pictures of the meal but imagine endless amounts of Southern food.  We took home a lot of leftovers.  We opened gifts with the family and when they left R and I had some quality time with just my mom.  For the second time in the day we opened gifts from Santa - who basically cleaned off the remaining items from our wedding registry.  I have so much china now.  I also got a beautiful new clutch and jewelry.

 Baby loves getting gifts too.  She made out like a bandit with a variety of snacks to start off the new year.

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Christmas is also Baby's birthday!  She is officially 13 years old and after a day of traveling she was ready, willing, and waiting for her birthday cake.

 This one is carob and peanut butter chip. And she became impatient while we sang Happy Birthday.

I hope you enjoyed the scenes from our holiday.  We went shopping the day after Christmas and shockingly I didn't purchase much at all.  We have a lot of decorations so I just picked up some gift bags, tissue, bows, and wrapping paper.  I also bought a cocoa pot on sale along with some cocoa for those chilly January nights.  We will probably take our decorations down this upcoming weekend and start the annual clean out and organizing madness.  I'm actually looking forward to it!