Holiday recap

Where did my vacation go? Where did Christmas go? Shit, where the hell did November go?

Remember when you were a kid and vacations were endless? Christmas took forever to get here and it never seemed to leave?

Not any more!

We enjoyed our holiday - the quick flash of time that it was. ;)

I worked until the 22nd and then had the rest of the year off (yahoo Mountain Dew!)

I was planning on my aunt bringing my Grandma to our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - so I had a lot to plan for ... but I also wanted to enjoy some time off with the boys.

We baked a lot of cookies ... a LOT ... I made:

1. Chocolate Peanut Butter sandwiches ... YUM!
2. Oreo Cookie Balls .... sinful
3. Cranberry-Pistachio drops
4. Salted Chocolate dipped Shortbread
5. Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti
6. Decorated Sugar cookies
7. Chocolate Chunk cookies
8. Saltine Cracker toffee
9. Caramel wrapped pretzel truffles

I am still surprised I didn't gain ten pounds over the holidays!

E was off the week before Christmas so the four of us grabbed some lunches, enjoyed some time at Caribou Coffee sitting by the fire with hot chocolate (or in my case, the Dark Chocolate Spicy Mocha ... I was addicted and probably spent $50 in a few weeks drinking these in place of breakfasts and lunches!). It was enjoyable to just be a family for a while, rather than employees of other people!

Christmas Eve was a blur. It happened that my aunt screwed me over on my visit with Grandma (another post for another day) and I would have to wait until Christmas night to see her, so, it would just be the four of us. We went to 3:00 Children's Mass .... it was so cute to see the kids in the Christmas play ,.... and watching Santa walk up the aisle with a gift for baby Jesus (yep, I sobbed .... like a baby). It was great to see the boys dressed up so much ... they looked so cute.

We went home and I prepared Christmas Eve Dinner:

Crab and Shrimp Bisque
Holiday Overnight Salad
Apple and Cranberry Stuffed Pork Loin Roast
Baked Corn
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Sweet and Sour Green beans
Red Velvet Cake

It was fabulous dinner (even though little j never touched a morsel) and E and I shared a few Champagne cocktails!

After dinner we played some Wii, set out cookies and milk for Santa, read the Polar Express and then the boys got into their PJ's and went to bed ... I wish every night was that easy to get them to go to bed.

E and I had wrapped all of the Santa presents the night before, so we actually sat down on the couch and watched It's a Wonderful Life and enjoyed a relaxing Christmas Eve ... and watched it snow out the window (this is the ONE and ONLY time you will hear me say how beautiful the snow was!). After we were sure the boys were sound asleep, we played Santa .... I wrapped all of the gifts from Santa in red Santa wrapping (the one thing that I remember from Santa as a child was that his wrapping paper was eerily similar to what my Mom's presents were wrapped in!). We moved flowers away from the front of the fireplace and took a few bites of cookies, drank milk and then hit the hay!

Christmas morning was so cool. The boys woke up and we had Big J run to tell us if Santa thought they were good this year. He ran downstairs and came back up yelling, "I thought we were bad this year! I can only imagine what it would look like if we were good!' ;)

We spent the next few hours unwrapping and playing. I got some new pajamas and underwear (Big J thought that was hysterical), an infinity scarf, Glenn Beck's Broke on audio, wind chimes for the back yard, a cute cardigan, a dress from the boys and a few little things. We enjoyed an overnight egg casserole and overnight french toast that I had made (the french toast has become our family tradition).

After presents (and me throwing ham in the oven - see one of my previous posts), we cleaned up and headed down to my sister in laws to celebrate Christmas with E's family.

It was enjoyable, the ham came out very good (thank God - I practically nailed it to two pans and duct taped foil around it so it would survive the car ride down!).

There, I got a Kindle (a surprise!), a Coach shoulder bag (another surprise) and some odds and ends.

We headed back North to pick up my Grandma.

The visit with Grandma was low key and relaxed and I enjoyed every second of it. She napped with the boys on Sunday while I ran to Target to get more Rubbermaids to store the plethora of toys the boys had received from everyone. We enjoyed a repeat of my Christmas Eve meal and I "returned" her to my Aunt that night.

It was so nice to know I still had one more week off from work.

E went back that Monday. So, it was me and the boys.

Monday: we ran a few errands, returned a few unneeded Christmas presents, grocery shopped for the coming week and Mommy let them get McDonald's (I let them only once every few months).

Tuesday: Pajama Day. We stayed in our pj's all day. The boys watched TV, played with toys, built a fort, decorated the Gingerbread train my Grandma gave them for Christmas, and Mommy got to veg a bit too!

Wednesday: Kohl's Children museum (which I will not be renewing a membership for because I would like to strangle all the hoity toity moms and spoiled rotten brats that you have to deal with while you are there), and brunch with the boys while the cleaning lady was at the house.

Thursday: Babysitter for boys while Mommy went to the doctor and lunch out with Daddy near his office.

Friday: UCF game day and New Years Eve!!!
What a day. All three boys fell asleep right before kickoff, so my friends and I (through Facebook and texts and the Internet) all watched the Knights defeat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl "together." So, my game day spread (including homemade cheese balls, shrimp dip, chips and salsa and LIQUOR) was mine all mine!!!! (What did I say about not gaining ten pounds?!)

After game day, we bathed the boys, changed into party clothes and threw some sausage on the grill ()it was 60 degrees outside) for our big New Years Eve party (once again, it was just the four of us).
We grilled out, played Wii, had a dance marathon and watched Dick Clark's NYE so we could celebrate at 11:00 for the boys ... low key, but fun.

New Years Day was spent taking down Christmas decor and enjoying the fact that I still had three more days of vacation.

Going back to work on that Tuesday sucked ... it still sucks. But, looking back on my vacation, I really enjoyed spending so much time with my family and the boys .... it was a blessing.