Christmas Day 2009

Christmas morning was so magical. "Monk" surprised both of us with her awe and quick love for her new Abby Cadaby doll. Rob taped it and it was really special. We agreed that it was a close second to the Christmas morning tape when we told the kids that Monk would be coming :)

Later, we hosted dinner, and it was a beautiful day.

Mimi and Papa outdid themselves...they brought a kick-butt, and may I had HUGE roast. Mimi stuffed the roast with the most delicious goat cheese and pepper stuffing too. I served a few of the good 'ole standbys- roasted garlic and cheddar red-skinned mashed potatoes, green beans with shallots and bacon, caprese salad and regular tossed salad. My main dish was my "white lasagna" that my brother has been talking about for four years, since I made it last. I don't make it often as it is so much work. It is comprised of a bauchemel sauce, carmelized vidalia onions and pancetta in between the lasagna noodles and topped with mozzarella cheese. It is very rich but oh so good!

For dessert, we indulged in Grammy's fruit and wine bowl, tons of Christmas cookies and Mimi's delish rum cake.

We were so fortunate and grateful to have this feast in our home this year...we are so lucky that we were able to endulge so much during such tough times. We don't take that for granted.

We ended up pulling a pretty decent Christmas together for the kids too...I try to point out to them the importance of this specific holiday and steer them away from the material things...but you know teenagers. All we want to do is be a little positive influence in their lives when there is so much negative influence out there...and I think slowly but surely we are getting that accomplished!

There is one more thing we need to accomplish as we did not before Christmas Day this year and that is volunteering to help a family in need or a group of people in need. I am searching the Manchester area and know that the right project will come to us. We hope that we can help someone else in their time of need as so many of our friends and families have done for us. Time to give back.

Christmas Eve 2009

Ahh...the magic..one of my favorite days all year.

Rob, Monk and I started the day by visiting all of our grandparents at their various cemeteries and then I made a special visit to Anissa. That was a tough one.

After that, we headed over to Mimi and Papa's and Diana had a blast eating her first Christmas cookie.

Later, mass was a challenge to say the least! We have been going to mass in shifts and on Christmas Eve we really didn't have a choice so we braved mass at St. Pat's all together, in Stoneham, with Mimi, Papa, Uncle Matt and Auntie Gina.

That is where our Griswold holiday started. I had gone to Old Navy at 7am when they opened to pick up a few last minute items...one of them being a "men's red tee" for Rob to wear under a blazer. Well he concluded the tee was actually a woman's and we had so many laughs. He ended up wearing it under his blazer.

We get to church and he jumps into a snow bank, trying to help me get out safely and ends up getting salt all over his blazer...he couldn't take the jacket off as we already know about his tee shirt dilema...so he took the blazer off and put on his winter coat.

Then after carrying Monk into church and determining that her new shrug was shedding all over all of us, he looks down and sees that his coat is covered in fur....too funny.

He ended up going back to the car, grabs the blazer and washes it off in the men's room.

While all of this is going on, Diana was so restless and ended up being that restless for the whole hour and a half mass....

Anyway after mass, we were exhausted but quickly gained a second wind when we got to Auntie Peggie's...the master of Christmas Eve....there was so much seafood going around....laughs being had and Uncle Bill's awesome Kahlua Martinis....we had a ball...we even think that this was the best year ever!!