A Very Merry Christmas, Part 1

While nothing is quite like being home for the holidays (especially when it's a white Christmas at home), Pat and I still had a very relaxing and wonderful Christmas. And we still have three more days off before we have to go back to work!

I think our happy holiday started with putting up a Christmas tree together for the first time, even though this is the fourth Christmas we've lived together (pictures here). Something about having a tree just got me in the Christmas spirit. I think that's because so many of my ornaments and decorations are from friends and family. When I look at that ugly plastic candy garland, I think of the first time my cousins and I snuck into our great-grandfather's house at night and decorated the tree and the rest of the house. We found that hideous garland, had a good laugh, and immediately hung it up. And, actually, I think it kind of works on our tree.



Christmas Eve we slept in and had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. Heck, that alone makes for a good day in this household. And, even though I didn't get to spend Christmas with my family, I did get to talk to all nine of them while they were celebrating together at my grandparents'. With them all laughing and "fighting" and goofing around in the background, I get to feel like I'm there with them for a few minutes at the holidays. Hopefully I really will be decorating cookies, listening to the Oak Ridge Boys, stuffing my face, and laughing with them next year. And, at least I will see them all in January.

This next part is probably not going to sound like a holly jolly time to anyone else, but we also cleaned our bedroom, master bath, and walk-in closet on Wednesday. Not just cleaned, but deep-cleaned. The kind of cleaning where you take everything out of the drawers and off the shelves and get on your hands and knees to scrub the baseboards and go through all your clothes to get rid of what you don't wear. I love that kind of cleaning. We're going to be doing that to the rest of our apartment this weekend. I can't wait.

We wrapped up our day by watching movies (Diner and Kit Kittredge), eating a nice holiday dinner (ham for Pat, grainy mustard mashed potatoes, asparagus with toasted almonds, salad, and biscuits), tracking Santa Claus, and drinking homemade eggnog while watching A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa. Okay, okay, it's not the best Muppet movie ever, or even the best Muppet Christmas special, but they had me reeled in as soon as the first notes of the first song started playing and they sealed the deal with Jesse L. Martin and Sweetums, one of my favorite Muppets from my second-favorite Muppet movie: Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince.