Holiday Recap, Part 2

This was my first Christmas away from my family, and I was really starting to get homesick until my dearest friend Josyl showed up for a visit. Having her here for Christmas saved me from some serious holiday blues.

For Christmas Eve, we invited some close friends over for dinner. Here's Rich helping me out in the kitchen.


I had to make everything from scratch and it all went pretty well. It was my first time cooking up a turkey and I was so nervous. It went smoothly except for the last 30 minutes when I was trying to "brown" the bird. Our oven is kinda screwy and I should've watched it more closely. My turkey legs got a little bit more brown than I was hoping for. Oh well, there's always next year...

After dinner, we struggled to stay awake so that we could all go to Midnight Mass. We managed to do it and even got to the church early enough to get seats.


The next morning was opening presents time-- still my favorite part of Christmas. I knew what I was getting, but it was fun unwrapping everything anyway. But my wonderful husband still managed to give me a couple of surprise gifts.

After presents, it was time for me to spend some time in the kitchen again to get ready for our next round of guests. We invited anyone who didn't have plans for Christmas day to come spend it with us. Here are some pictures from the rest of the day...


My friend Lorene with her adorable daughter, Alyce, who brought all her Christmas presents with her.



EJ putting together his Christmas present, a Transformer.





Mimi opening her present, a princess dress up kit.



And then trying it all on, of course! I'm so glad we were lucky enough to have kids around opening their presents for Christmas day. It doesn't quite feel like Christmas to me until you see little children opening presents.