Christmas Recap, With Plenty of Photos

On the first day of my week of Christmas vacation, I went to the office for our annual holiday potluck. It's a simple gathering, very low key, not very well attended and usually with lame decorations. I volunteered to decorate this year and brought in a bunch of the stuff we weren't able to put up at home (because the toddler  gets into everything). I also brought a bit of entertainment, in the form of my daughter. She was very shy at first but when she warmed up to the space and the crowd, she was dancing about the room as happy as you please. Everyone loved her pink outfit (which she also wore for church earlier in the week). Unfortunately, she was a bit of a pickle when I tried to get her picture, so these two are actually the best of the batch... and not even very good:

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we went to stay with my folks for a day. Usually we spend the day with my in-laws, but they flew south to spend the holiday with Nate's brother and his family. We thought it would be nice to be with family instead of just the three of us hanging out, so even though the folks live fairly close, we stayed with them.

It turned out to be a bit of an adventure. Round about bedtime, the power went out for a couple of hours! Luckily my dad has flashlights stashed in just about every corner of the house, and my parents own a few oil-burning lamps, so we were all set for however long we needed to endure the darkness. Unfortunately, Baby Girl was not all set. She didn't get her usual warm bath, for one thing. Plus we were in a "different" location, and everyone was wandering around with flashlights at bedtime. So she had a hard time getting to sleep, and then she didn't sleep well. She got up on Christmas morning at 4am asking for grandma and she would NOT go back to sleep. We spent two hours trying to get her back down, but she is very stubborn. Finally my mom came out and whisked her away; I got another half hour of sleep then took a shower. Nate slept in for a couple of hours.

We opened our presents to each other on Christmas morning, after everyone had breakfast and showered. As I mentioned in my last post, I got Nate a Jig Saw. He also got a pair of slippers, but I got those way back on Black Friday and they were not a surprise. Nate got to use it for the first time today, to round off the corners of a little dining table that he's building for our daughter. He said it works great and it is easy to use. He sure was excited to receive it:

I received a couple of gifts, both for my Cuisinart: 1) a neat little organizer box for the food processor's various blades; and 2) a specialty blade that cuts food at 8mm thick. Unfortunately, it turns out that this thick-cutting blade from my wish list is too large for my model (it fits a 14-cup machine, mine is an 11-cup machine)! So I had to send it back, which I did the day after Christmas. As far as I can tell, apparently Cuisinart doesn't actually make an 8mm blade for an 11-cup machine. Boo! They do make a 6mm blade, but you can't buy it on its own, you have to buy it as part of a 3-blade set (which is a lot more expensive than buying just one blade).

So as a replacement gift to myself, I instead ordered a flat work bowl lid for the Cuisinart (the lid that comes with the food processor has a chute; I don't always need the cumbersome multi-parted chute lid). This new lid came on Friday, but it was just a tad too small. I could fit it on the bowl, but it was very tight and it had a slight gap on the side. Thus I had to send it back, too! I dropped it in the mail on Saturday morning, and Saturday night I went to the actual Cuisinart website and ordered the flat work bowl lid, the one that's very clearly labeled as being the right size. Let's hope I'm not going to strike out here on my third attempt.

Darling had the biggest haul, of course.

Earlier this fall I noted a couple of items that I wanted to get for my daughter which would make decent Christmas gifts. Neither of them are particularly expensive -- a forehead thermometer (about $30 on Amazon) and an umbrella stroller (about $20 at Toys-R-Us) -- but hey, Christmas is a good excuse for buying such things. However, by the time December 1st rolled around, I had forgotten about both items. The days ticked by and still my memory was frozen. Finally it got to be about week before Christmas, and in state of utterly failed recall, I got her some other things. Not the end of the world, but super annoying for someone who use to have such a sharp mind! The worst part is that, about four days before Christmas, WHAM! I remembered both items. But by then the gifts were purchased and wrapped. Too late.

Still, my daughter ended up with a gift from every member of our household and then some -- mom, dad, each of the cats, each of the chickens, her teddy bear, and even Mr. Claus. She got two airplanes (one of them a float plane), a toy that tastefully plays six different Bethoven classics, a set of Duplos, six books (one on airplanes; a book for the bathtub; and a four-piece set of Dr. Suess educational board books), and a pair of jammies. My mom got her a board book, and my mom's former boss got her some baby "beauty" products from Jaffra.

Darling loved unwrapping her presents. Grandma showed her how to do it. Then she wanted to help unwrap everyone's presents. She even got to help grandma (my mom) unwrap one of her gifts:

After this morning of fun and festivities, we collected our belongings (which were all over the house at that point), and loaded up the car. We tried to help my mom load up, too, although some things were left behind, Whoops. Nate, Baby, and I hopped in our car and headed out to my grandma's house; my folks were about half an hour behind us on the road. We arrived a little bit before noon and ate lunch.

In case you didn't know, if you're in need of a high chair, dad's lap makes for a fair substitution:

Then the baby ran around while we set up the tables and put out the appetizers. Nate and I made several things this year, including ceviche, hummus, and chocolate chip dip. Over the last few years, the appetizer selection at my family's gathering has dwindled from a variety of delicious offerings down to... hmm... I think last year we had some carrot sticks and a small portion of hummus? (I'm downwards-exaggerating, but not by much!) It's not a big deal to me; Mr. Bottomless Pit, however, needs more food at his gatherings. So we made lots of goodies... and had large portions leftover at the end of the day. Ha! Next year I think we'll just stick to one big or maybe two small appetizers.

Baby had to be wrestled down for her nap, and then I went to join her. Probably not the classiest thing to do at the family gathering, eh? Boo to anyone who was bothered; I'd been awake for about the better part of 10 hours, running on maybe six hours of rough sleep. Fellow parents of young 'uns, you understand.

When Darling and I got up, it was just about food time. Nom. We ate, chatted with the cousins, and those of us who elected to participate in the gift exchange opened our presents. From my aunt, I got "Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving" aka the "Canning Bible" and a set of 4oz canning jars. Nate got some great hand tools from my uncle. The tools are things we already have -- needle nose pliers, wire cutters, etc. -- but we've really needed an extra set so it's perfect.

I had my mom for the exchange, so I gave her a pair of very nice bicycling glove liners. Nate had one of my cousins, one who is still living at home but thinking about moving out (or so said my aunt). We got her a blender and a set of kitchen cooking utensils.

Nate and I also got a bit of cash for Christmas. We agreed to use the money for the family, to buy things the family needs. So we finally, after almost EIGHT years of marriage, got new sheets. We were given one (1) set of sheets by Nate's parents when we first got married, and those have been our only sheets for all of these years. Yes, I know we should have at one backup set. I know we're kinda strange about some things. But be that as it may, we've needed a new set of sheets for more than a year now. I wanted to get another set that would last us for many years, but it's hard to fork over that kind of cash. (I'm frugal, have I mentioned?) So after Christmas, money in hand, we hit the stores to compare options. We landed on a beautiful set from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Excellent quality and a great price, especially since we had one of those handy 20% off coupons. Such a silly thing, but I'm seriously super happy about the new sheets. Best Christmas gift of all, hands down!!! Thanks to both sets of parents for the requisite cash.

The sheets didn't use up all our money; we also replaced our small slow cooker. The current slow cookers is a two-quart pot and it has started to make a whining noise. I ordered a four-quart pot as a replacement. (We also already have a large pot (8qts?) which we rarely need because it's so big, and it's working just fine.) I also ordered a small rice cooker. I've never owned one and don't even make rice very often, but I really hate making rice so I hope the cooker will make it less of a pain. Finally, I got a couple of cookie scoops and a couple of cake-decorating bags and tips.

The day after Christmas, we got to see my parents yet again! They came down to make some deliveries. You see, my mom made four pies for Christmas (two apple, two pumpkin) but accidentally left one of them at home. Also, when I was helping her pack the food, I forgot the ham. She picked up another ham on the way to grandma's, so we had ham, but there was still a whole ham back in her fridge at home. Thus the day after Christmas, she came down to our house and have us half an apple pie and a bunch of ham. I don't care much for the ham, but oh, apple pie from my mom... yum.

Overall, it was a lovely holiday. I had a great time. I'm almost sad it's all over already. Next year, I'm going to start decorating and celebrating early. I usually try to give Thanksgiving a nice grace period -- I don't want to hurt my favorite holiday's feelings, after all. But that means that Christmas gets squished. So next year, earlier celebrations and more of them. We might even throw a holiday party!