And [the holidays] Came To Pass

This was the first year since being married that Sam and I did not travel for the Holidays. Not that we usually go as far as NYC, as we did last year, but we've always been at someone else's home.

It was wonderful to be in our own beds without filling up the car with luggage over and over again and without worries of bad-weather roads.

By some fluke, we had our very own Christmas Eve together, too. My family decided to do their regular Christmas Eve stuff on the Saturday prior to Christmas. Sam's decided to do theirs on the 23rd. Our day went a little like this:

Breakfast: Holiday Ham & Cheese Bake

Then the making & eating of Carmel-Pecan

Cinnamon Rolls & Fantasy Fudge

For Dinner: Take-out cuisine from India House restaurant in Sandy (I'm thinking this will be a traditional Christmas Eve Feast in our family for years to come.)

We then enjoyed a couple of our favorite Christmas movies-- The Nativity Story and The Santa Clause.

We also read/listened to 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with my mom's voice reading to us (she got the cool & to-be cherished record-your-own-voice books at Halmark). Winston kept looking around the room for his Grandma.

Winston got to wear some new jammies and was full of cuteness in the evening.

Christmas morning was all to us. Winston was excited to have some new brightly-colored objects to explore.

The rest of the holidays were spent with family, shopping, and lots and lots of eating.

I've decided I have a love-hate relationship with holiday goodies. I love the taste and the only-once-a-year specialities. I hate the over-full stomach day after day and the sugar-coated teeth. I miss it when it is gone, but glad it's only once a year.