This year Christmas creeped up on us really fast. Last year we didn't have to get out to the malls/stores after black Friday shopping at all, and this year we were shopping until the 23rd! For the month of December, there was no shortage of Christmas movies and egg nog for us. We started buying eggnog cartons in 5's and watched some classic movies we haven't seen in forever: Charlie Brown, Frosty the Snowman, and The Polar Express. We also managed to watch Christmas Vacation twice (or maybe it was 3 times...).
Our Christmas festivities started on Dec 22nd, whe we had Al and Steph over. We thought since we had these arrangements we would invite Chels and Warren, and Andzelika and Paul too. Chels and Warren and Al and Steph ended up coming over (and little Colton).
This here is the awesomely large present we got for Colton. We thought he was a little young to be able to enjoy it, but he showed us! He saw the wrapped box and helped with opening it... with supervision because he also likes to eat paper...
We also thought that he wouldn't fully be able to enjoy his present (a John Deer dumptruck, and tractor) until the summer, but again he showed us otherwise. We took them out of the box, and he immediately played with them, turning the wheels on them. Colton is getting so big!
My Christmas tree this year! Every year I get more ornaments of the red, silver, and gold sort to add and it gets more sparkly :) This will continue to be our upstairs decorative tree, and once our basement is in use, we will have a second down there, which will be a real tree and will have ornaments that are homemade or meaningful on them. For the first 7 Christmases together, Aleksy bought me an ornament with the year on it. I have from 2005 and I think the last year I have is 2011. These will go on the tree downstairs too!
And like every year, I made a wide variety of delicious baked goodness for gifts and for Christmas desserts. This year my new additions were: rum balls (a clear hit which will be added to the usual line up), turtle cheesecake balls, chocolate meringue cookies (gluten free for my ma), and Portuguese biscuits (I made these for Kenny, Steph and Brandon and Rachel, they were really good!).
I also made the usuals: peanut butter balls, peanut butter chocolate squares, ginger snaps, Christmas sprinkle cookies, and nanaimo bars.
I made up platter like this for both Christmas Eve (hosted by my Mom), and Christmas Day (hosted by us!).
On Christmas Eve, we headed over to my Mom's about 4:30pm. When Rachel came, the first thing she did was find Emma and scope out which presents were theirs under the tree. I took this picture after supper. The girls at this point were telling everyone that we should open presents. They were way too excited to open presents to wait any longer than they had to.
Present opening for the girls: They opened the first couple for themselves, then when we told them that it was other people's turns, Rachel took a couple times to get used to that. They were so cute and excited. It was really nice to have Emma at Christmas this year, I think Rachel prefers having a friend to open presents with.
Aleksy's present time! Can't go wrong with some good ol' beer. And a variety to change it up. Everyone was interested in Aleksy's Christmas present...
After all presents were open, we got picture in front of the tree. This was not going to happen with the girls' excitement before opening presents.
They are so big now...
Travis' girlfriend, Courtney is very creative with her baking! She made a holly and snowman topping of candy and marshmallows :)
After some wine and dessert, we headed home about 11pm on Christmas Eve. An early night from a usual dinner at Mom and Pauls because Aleksy and I were getting up early Christmas morning to go to his parents for breakfast and presents.
That night I also started preparing the egg bake that I was making for breakfast the next day.
On Christmas morning, we headed to Lambeth for 9am. At Aleksy's parents we opened presents with Aleksy's parents and sister and brother then had a big breakfast. We had the egg bake that Aleksy and I made (I would say 75% Aleksy and 25% me), and homemade muffins, and his parents picked up these spinach and cheese filled middle eastern pastries that were so good!
Aleksy's sister Alyssa lives in Ottawa and we don't gt a lot of opportunity to spend time with her so she accepted our invite to our Christmas supper on Christmas Day at out place! She agreed to assist with our supper prep, which made things very low maintenance on Christmas.
Aleksy and I exchanged stockings and gifts on Christmas afternoon too! I got lots to start up my workouts at home: 3 sets of dumbbells, an exercise ball, and a stepper! We were on the same page with our gifts apparently, because I ought him new underarmour gym shorts and an underarmour water bottle.
This was my second time making a turkey, and again it turned out great! We were a little pressed for time since we got home from Aleksy's parnets around noon and still had to make the stuffing.
We made up the stuffing, seasoned the 18 lb beast and got it in about 1pm. It was a little alter than anticipated, which made for a bit of a delay for supper (we ate around 7pm).
Capturing Aleksy and Alyssa stuffing the best with as much stuffing as we could possibly get in (everyone knows stuffing is the best part).
And everyone arrived around 4:30pm at our place :) We had my sister, Kenny, Brandon, Rachel, Alyssa, Dad, and Matt over for supper (and Aleksy and me).
We made up mashed potatoes, carrots and parsnips to go with the turkey supper and Steph made a delicious creamy, cheesy veggie dish.
Everyone in our living room just before supper. Even the cat.
Following supper, we had my grandparents, Uncle Scott, Aunt Cindy, and my cousin Laura come over to join us for dessert and opening presents!
The awesome Iron Man shirt we got for Rachel!! This good find was at the Disney Store in Great Lakes Crossing. We knew as soon as we saw it that it was definitely for Rachel!
I think everyone had a good time on Christmas day, since my grandparents and Dad stayed until 10 and my Aunt, Uncle and Steph and Kenny stayed until 12:30am!
After everyone left, Alyssa, Aleksy and I stayed up until 3am having some more wine and playing Jenga :)
And on Saturday the 28th, I went over to Brooklyn's for our Christmas exchange. Brooklyn made some yummy lemon squares and we opened gifts and had some tea before I drove her to the nursing home that she volunteers at! This is an annual picture we do every year, and its fun to look at each year and how old Brooklyn is getting...
And tonight, we have friends over for New Years!!! Love New Years parties!
Happy New Year :)
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