Just when you thought it was safe to go outside.....
Hey y'all!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (if that's your thing) - or at the very least, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. :-)
Jim and I had a great Christmas, and Santa was VERY good to us both.
Before I get into that, a quick re-cap of what we did over the 'break'.
On Thursday night, we got together with a small group of friends for a very fun and relaxing low-key evening. It was exactly what we all needed after a long and crazy work week, leading up to the holiday weekend.
On Friday (Christmas Eve) - Jim and I spent the day taking it easy, completely stress free, getting ourselves ready for the night at Jim's brother's house. Jim made the risotto for the risotto croquets that we were bringing to a couple of places, he also made and decorated a gingerbread cake, and I made my little 'turtle treats' (which consist of a Rolo on top of a pretzel, topped by a cashew - yum!).
Early in the evening, we stopped at 'The Grille' for a few drinks before heading to Jim's brother's house, and then spent the rest of the night over there. It was quite fun. There was a ton of food, lots of people (family and friends), and we had a great time.
Christmas morning we woke up, had breakfast and then headed over to Jim's mother's house. After we exchanged gifts with Jim's family, we stopped at home to drop off our 'loot', and then headed to my sister's house for dinner.
My parents and both sisters (and their families) were there, which was very nice. My older sister had to work until 4pm, but thankfully the hospital she works at (she's a nurse) is literally in the backyard of our oldest sister's house so she was close by.
Again, we had a TON of food, and a lot of fun with not only our family, but a few close friends as well. After dinner, Jim and I headed home, got into our PJs and exchanged gifts.
That's been our tradition for some time now and it's one that we've grown to love. After the craziness of seeing family and friends and driving from one relative's house to the other, it's a great way for us to end Christmas night. Just the two of us (and Scooter) sitting in front of the Christmas tree with a fire going, exchanging gifts and talking about the day. :-)
As I mentioned earlier, it was a very good Christmas for the two of us...
I got a bunch of new flannel shirts, a few books, some CDs, an iPhone/iPod adapter for my car (so I can play the music on my iPhone in my car), a couple of new buildings for the village, a gift card or two, tickets to see a couple of shows at SpeakEasy, some cash, and tickets to see Mamma Mia! in Providence on New Year's Eve!!!
A good friend of ours is playing Rosie (one of the three leads) on tour, so a bunch of us are getting together and seeing the show that night...I can't WAIT to see her!!!
Jim got tickets to see 'Jersey Boys' in Boston (fun!), some clothes, some books, gift cards, cash, a leather jacket, and an iPad! He was very excited about the iPad. It was one of those things that he had talked about wanting, but kept going back and forth as to whether or not he really wanted it or not, so I finally decided that I was going to get it for him. He was thrilled. :-)
As it turned out, our parents (both mine and his) were in cahoots about our Christmas presents this year, and wanted to get us a snow blower.
For those of you who aren't aware, we just had our driveway paved this year, which means that we could FINALLY get a snow blower. Gravel driveways and snow blowers don't mix, so we were forced to shovel every time it snowed....and we have a BIG driveway.
Anyway....they decided to give us money towards a snow blower, and we were more than happy to oblige. In fact, on Sunday morning (the day after Christmas) we got up early, went to the grocery store - along with a million other people (blizzard warnings will do that) did our grocery shopping and then went out to buy a snow blower. We ended up getting a really great one, and thanks to our parent's contribution, we essentially only had to pay for half of it.
Those suckers are EXPENSIVE - but, we wouldn't have ever been able to afford it without their help.
Thanks folks!!!
Our timing couldn't have been better, as we were BURIED when when woke up on Monday morning. Jim was out there bright and early clearing the driveway, as I shoveled all the areas that the snow blower couldn't get to (only a small amount of shoveling, thank Jesus).
Once the driveway was cleared and the cars cleaned off, we both sat on the couch and continued our Dexter marathon, which we'd started the night before.
(I'd never seen the show, but countless friends said I'd like it, so I put it on my Christmas list. I got seasons 1-4 on DVD, and we're already into season two at this point. It's SUCH a great show.)
OK - I have gone on WAYYYY too long at this point, so I'm going to stop blabbering.
I hope you had a great holiday, weekend, week off...whichever the case may be.
I'm here all week, so you'll be hearing from me.....
xoxo
Here are a few pictures I swiped from B - which were taken on Thursday night, at our 'low-key' gathering.
Enjoy!!!
This is our friend's tree. and believe me, it's even more amazing in person as it looks in these pictures.
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