Whew! Christmas survived!
Christmas is without a doubt on of my favorite times of the year. I love gift-giving, cookie and candy baking, cookie, enjoying time with family and friends and everything else that goes along with the time from Thanksgiving through New Years. I am, however, thrilled to have a couple of days off after Christmas to recover.
Matt and I finished all of our holiday baking on Monday morning. We dipped regular Oreo balls, mint Oreo ball, dried apricots, and PB balls - 4 semi-sweet chocolate chips bags of dipping. I love doing it and watching others enjoy my treats, but I was really glad when we were finished. We made brunch enchiladas for Christmas morning brunch and then got ready and headed over to my parents house for Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, my mom returned from Arkansas with a terrible cold and felt pretty terrible for most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is spent with my mom's family. My mom's cousins Carol, Bill and Dianne come over and bring their families. We had 21 people in our house for appetizers, dinner and gift giving. They are, however, a late-night group and it was after midnight before we were able to get to sleep. My mom suffered the brunt of a short night of sleep and never really recovered on Christmas day. She made it up to open gifts with us in the morning, but went to sleep soon after and was completely out until after my dad's family arrived and ate our Christmas meal. I remember being sick on Christmas Day (and ONLY Christmas day) the year I was 10 - it was pretty miserable - especially when I could hear my cousins having a great time downstairs and I was in bed feeling like crap. Sarah and I were able to take charge for dinner and it enabled my mom to just sleep as much as she wanted. By evening she said she was feeling much better. Alice and Sam drove over to our house which was great because Sam left town today and I would not have seen him if he had not come over. They were able to stay for awhile - and arrived with their wedding gift for Matt and I - a great collection of spices and a homeade recipe book.
Matt and I spent today recovering and did a little retail therapy. We purchased a new duvet cover at Pottery Barn that I have had my eye on for awhile - and it dropped to 50% off today in for the post-Christmas sales. I've been looking for something for our guest room and it will be perfect!
