The holidays went by in a blur and much of it was spent entertaining. When I last posted it was Christmas Eve and I was busy in the kitchen. I attempted that morning to make my Mom's "famous" bun recipe (which ended up taking two batches and numerous "emergency" phone calls to my niece who has perfected "Grandma's buns"). My first batch didn't rise like they should have because the directions I was using weren't detailed enough, so Krissy to the rescue with a better, more updated recipe which had the buns turn out perfectly. Dad was here later on Christmas Eve and was my official taste tester, after all he knew Mom's buns best! (hee hee) Here's my finished product:
Christmas Eve my Dad and Hubby's Mom joined us for our church service and a light dinner. It was an early night for them, but not so much for Hubby and me as we put a few finishing touches on our pre-Christmas preparations. We were hosting his family for Christmas Day so like busy little elves we stayed up to get everything perfect for the next day's events.
Knowing that I was having a houseful on Christmas, I have to be honest and say that I was a little stressed prior to Christmas morning about how I would handle preparing a turkey dinner, get to church for 10am and have time to celebrate Christmas with Hubby before his family came early afternoon. Selfishly I wanted the morning to ourselves but Christmas is about God and Jesus, after all so where better to be on Christmas morning than in church, worshiping the One who gave us CHRISTmas in the first place, right? Well... by laying down my selfish desires and following what I knew in my heart was the right choice, God blessed me incredibly that morning and throughout the day. Christmas with the in-laws was wonderful and Hubby and I both reflected (as we opened our stockings and gifts at 10:30 pm after everyone had left), it was one of our best Christmases ever!
The next few days we recouped, tidied up that inevitable Christmas mess of boxes, tissue paper and crumpled up wrapping paper before gearing up for a marathon of entertaining. On the 29th, good friends of ours came over for the evening. Knowing I had two big parties ahead of me, we opted for take-out Chinese food which was a nice change from the turkey pot pie we had been eating since Christmas. On the 30th, twenty-two of my immediate family members squeezed into our tiny townhome for our annual Open House. It was a great night of fun, family and food but it was a late night as Hubby and one of my nephew's stayed up to watch UFC until 1am. I think we got to bed around 2am.
New Year's Eve we decided to invite a few friends over for a little NYE Party. They arrived at 8pm and we ate, drank and laughed the evening away. At 11:45 we turned the t.v. on so we could watch the ball drop in Times Square as we sipped pink "champagne" from crystal flutes. Some guests left around 12:30 am but one couple stayed chatting until almost 2:30am. By the time I got the kitchen cleaned up and the dishes unloaded and reloaded into the dishwasher, it was 4am. Needless to say "hookie" was the word that Sunday morning!
I think I'm still recovering from the holidays. I haven't gotten back into a regular bedtime routine so I'm still up late every night, dragging my butt out of bed each morning. I haven't even begun to think about hauling everything out from under the stairway closet and taking "Christmas" down (that too will be "late" this year!). Now that the parties are all done and 2012 is settling in, I think I'll take a few more days to just sit and relax, savoring the wonderful (albeit busy) memories of Christmas 2011. The tree can come done in February! (just kidding... I think!).
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year! May God bring blessings of hope, joy and a renewed passion for Him to us all in 2012!!
1 comment:
Sounds like you had a great Christmas!! Sometimes you just have to slow down on the blog to enjoy life! I know how that is:)
Post a Comment