A Merry Christmas To All

Hello! I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve blogged, but it’s only been a day! I guess everything goes by faster in blogworld 😉

We had a great Christmas…but first, we had to make it through Christmas Eve…

We sat in the Seattle Airporst from 10 am to 4pm.  Our flight, scheduled to leave at 12:00, kept getting pushed back further and further by 30 minute delays.  Dallas had gotten some terrible weather, so they were waiting for it to get better before flying us down there.  We were worried that we weren’t going to get out at all, so it was a huge relief to board the plane at 4:00, finally. 

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning…

We got to Dallas around 9:30.  They couldn’t even pull the plane all the way into the gate—the runway was so icy, they had to tow us in.  The runway, as well as the roads and highways, were basically all sheets of ice.  Scary stuff.  We had about a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to Shreveport, but we figured we would at least get in by around 1 or 1:30.  Unfortunately, they had to de-ice the plane in order to get us our luggage, so after we got to the airport, we STILL sat around until 11:00, waiting for our bags.  By around 11:15, we were finally on the road.

Unfortunately, as you could probably guess, the roads were slow-going.  People were driving SO slow because of the ice, so traffic was really, really backed up in Dallas.  Plus, we passed about 5 or 6 accidents on the way out of town. 

We finally rolled into Shreveport around 4:00, exhausted to the bone and so, so, so happy to be home.

We definitely learned a lesson with this experience: we tried to spend time with both our families AS CLOSE to Christmas day as possible…and that was a bad idea! Traveling on Christmas Eve is just a bad idea, because if anything goes wrong, you’re not only dealing with the regular stress of being stuck in an airport with bad travel conditions, but on top of that, there’s the possibility that you might miss spending the holiday with your family.  Because of work schedules, etc., some people just can’t avoid traveling on Christmas Eve, but we’re fortunate enough to get a lot of break time during the holidays, so there’s really no need for us to do so.  Next year, we’ll know better!

Anyway…all’s well that ends well 🙂

The next morning, it was a beautiful, blue-skied Christmas morning! We woke up around 8:30, showered and dressed, and settled in with my parents, Katherine, and Kevin to open gifts and stockings. We got some great stuff! Obviously my big present this year was the camera, but I got a lot of great other stuff as well.  Lots of dishes and placemats and napkins that will be making an appearance on the blog soon!  I also got two new vegetarian cookbooks: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman, and The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen.  I’m really excited to cook from these cookbooks!

A baseball cap…woo hoo!

  

Ryan spent Christmas morning decked out in some fancy pjs that my grandmother passed down to him from my grandfather:

Even the dogs had stockings:

And then, for one of the best surprises, Katherine and Kevin presented all the dogs with a special gift: dog snuggies!!! Of course, a photo session was in order. It was hard to capture all of them at once, but I think I got a pretty good one!

George’s was a little tight:

Sophie’s “first” Christmas:

As is tradition, after opening our presents, we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house to enjoy a Christmas brunch with our extended family.  All of my cousins have young kids, so it’s always fun to see how excited they are about their presents.  They always have a lot to show off to us old folks 🙂

The menu we have for our Christmas Brunch has stayed the same for well over 30 years.  After Thanksgiving, it’s my favorite meal of the year!  It includes: Cornish game hens with gravy, roasted mushrooms, ham, cheese grits, spoon bread, spinach salad, and biscuits.   Mmmm…obviously I didn’t eat the meat this year, but that was fine with me—the other stuff is my favorite anyway!

My plate:

Cheese grits…yum:

I cleared my plate—and was stuffed! But not to stuffed to pick on the second biscuit that Ryan brought over 🙂

After brunch wrapped up, we headed home.  Ryan and I unpacked and did some cleaning up in our room (it was…and maybe still is…a disaster zone.).  Then, Ryan and I took Ella, Baxter, and my parents’ labradoodle Sugar to a nearby park so that they could run of some energy.  We let them all off-leash and threw the chuck-it for them (a Christmas gift to Ella).  They really had fun!

Then, after the dogs exercised, it was our turn: Ryan and I went for a 3 mile walk with my parents.  It was chilly outside, but it felt good once you got going! It definitely felt good to get a little bit of exercise in after all that rich food.  Plus, we had to make room for the next meal/event: chili and a movie at my grandmother’s house.

Who knows how we found room for more food after that delicious brunch, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.  Around 7:00, we headed over to my grandmother’s house for chili and wine.  And nachos.  And margaritas.  And double-chocolate pie.  Ummm…yeah. That’s kind of how my family rolls.  🙂

I didn’t have any of the chili because it was meat-based, but I enjoyed QUITE a few nachos, and a big helping of the cornbread salad that my mom made. I also had pie…and Christmas cookies…and two (three) pieces of peanut butter fudge.  Yeah, it might be time for a little post-Christmas detox.

No pictures—sorry! I was in a post-Christmas haze 🙂 At that point in the night, Ryan and I were also exhausted—we didn’t nap, so we were basically operating on about 4 hours of sleep.  We were ready to crash!

At my grandmother’s house, we got to meet my aunt and uncle’s new dog, Bethany.  They just got her from a Dallas shelter at Thanksgiving!  She is SO sweet—she was a puppy mill dog.  They used her to have litter after litter of puppies, and then when they were done with her, they dropped her off at a kill-shelter.  My aunt and uncle adopted her just in time:

She’s super sweet…she was licking at us and putting her paws on us the entire night.  Another Christmas Miracle dog!! Well, I guess technically she’s a Thanksgiving Miracle dog 🙂

We headed home around 9, and were sleeping blissfully by 10.  The past couple of days just feel like a blur to me!  I slept until 9:15 this morning—that is CRAZY late for me!  I guess I was even more tired than I thought.  The holidays are always wonderful, but I’m also usually glad they’re over 🙂

Today, my mom, my sister, and I have plans to hit up some shops for post-Christmas sales.  And tonight, I’m heading over to my friend Stefanie’s house (one of my bridesmaids!) for a girls night!!! One of our friends is fairly recently engaged, and another just got married last week, so we have a lot to celebrate.  I’m super-excited to have a girls night with my favorite ladies!!!

I hope your holiday was wonderful, and that you were able to celebrate with friends and family.  Have a great day!  Do you have any exciting post-holiday plans for this weekend?