a december to remember

We hosted Christmas at our house this year. The experience gave us a whole new appreciation for our parents (ahem, mothers) who've done it every year since before we were even born. Amazing. It's not that it was a stressful situation. In fact, it was extremely relaxing and comforting and rewarding. It's just that some people (ahem, me and my husband) set very high expectations on the holidays. It's our favorite time of year. It has to be perfect.

If I don't say so myself, it came pretty close. Starting with our traditional Christmas Eve sushi dinner at Asiana House with the sistas and bros. Mummy and Papa came later that night. Mummy brought the figgy pudding and Cornish pasties for Christmas breakfast. Papa brought venison steaks for Boxing Day. And of course they had prezzies!

Christmas Day was lovely. We opened stockings and prezzies in the morning and then had Christmas dinner later in the evening. Auntie Lucy and Uncle John and Richard's mother joined us too. I roasted my first pork loin. A 4 1/2 pound beauty we got from the farmers' market the week before. Mummy showed me how to truss it and I rubbed it in garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and olive oil. I roasted it in our new oven with built-in meat probe thermometer.

We ate the meal, we lit the pud on fire, we snapped the crackers and donned our crowns. It was lovely.

On Boxing Day, Richard and Hannah made us eggs Benedict for brunch and Papa grilled up the venison on the grill on our new stove. It turned out very well.

On Monday morning, Mummy and Papa headed home in the snowstorm and Col and I got in the car to head down to New York for our second Christmas with at the Algers. It was their fourth Christmas and so it was pretty mellow all around, which was fine by us. Jill and Jeff came with Lily the first night. There were deviled eggs and lots of prezzies. Lily played with the wrapping paper. Joan got her new wind chimes, 2 or 3 times over. Col got a lot of toys! We made sure to get some pictures of the house all done up. Who knows what or where our next Christmas will be?!

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