Christmas breakfast

Thought I'd add this, since I said I'd give the recipe to my sister and now I just think you all should have it 'cause it ROCKED. This is what T and I made Christmas morning, the first Christmas morning in a long time that I didn't have to go anywhere. I love my family dearly, but the sheer number of places T and I have to go sometimes gets exhausting, so sitting around in uncombed hair and comfy jammies felt pretty great. Anyway, here's the pretty picture of the Jalapeno, Sausage, Jack, and Egg Breakfast Braid:

Ours didn't look exactly like that, but hey, it tasted just fine. It really didn't take a lot of effort to make, and it kept for breakfast the next morning leftovers. Yum!

YEAH, we got the camera back! (and Christmas pictures)

First of all, I must show you all the apparatus used to fish out the camera because it's pretty high tech:

A driveway stake...
and a wall hook tied to a piece of string:

That and a magnetic flashlight that adhered to the back of the fridge, along with the brilliant teamwork of me and T, got us back our camera. As I said to several people, think of an old movie with the scene of kids getting a dime of a sewer grate with string and a piece of gum, and that's about the long and short of it.

Thus we had the camera ready for Christmas. This year we once again did the great Christmas Road Trip, but it wasn't nearly as taxing as it has been in past years; we just went to my mom's, my grandmother's in Batavia, and back to my mom's on the actual Christmas day. Christmas Eve we go to my dad's and this year I had the opportunity to speak German to the exchange student who spent the evening with us and Spanish to my stepsister's parents, who are from Spain. Fortunately I remembered just enough not to 1) make an ass of myself and 2) understand about 3/4 of what they were saying. Makes me excited to use them again, in some capacity. It's so true that if you don't use it, you lose it. Have to look into that for 2010, find some opportunities.

But I digress. We had a lovely time seeing all the family we have, direct and distant, biological and situational (through marriage, friendship, etc.). This year we made a lot of our presents, cheese bread and cinnamon raisin bread for everyone except my sister C, and I can't say what I made for them because I haven't given it to her and her BF yet--they spent Christmas in D.C. with his family. We missed her a lot, but I know she had a great time with J. By the way, the bread was ridiculously easy to make, so let me know if you want the recipes and I'll post them. All you need is a loaf pan, yeast, flour, sugar, salt, and a few other easy ingredients. I would post pictures, but the bread was eaten too quickly, so that gives some indication of how it tasted. My FIL also enjoyed it--we got to see him on the 26th. And on Sunday, we rested. All day.

Here are just a few pictures for you to enjoy. Hope all those who celebrate Christmas had as wonderful a holiday as I did.

Mom and R

T and me--he's wearing the jersey I gave him, and I have used the hair straightener he gave me (seriously, it rocks)

Tree at my grandmother's

My sister M and her husband C

C wearing his new blazer, the scarf he gave my sister, and R's new hat we gave him. Quite the ensemble, yes?

Penny in her Christmas bandana

Our tree! Isn't it beeyewteeful?

Ah, the holiday season

Tell me if this happens in your town: Yesterday while flipping stations on the radio, I discovered that they've already begun 24 hour Christmas music. Sigh. Bad enough that it used to happen the day after Thanksgiving; now it starts mid-November? What's next year, Daylight Savings??!! What is this madness??????

Don't get me wrong--I love the music. I do. But if I overdose on it for over a month before the actual holiday (I happen to celebrate Christmas), I begin to dread those beloved songs. Ouiser, how does M feel about this? I know it's his favorite holiday. Doesn't this whole "start early" bit seem a little pushy as well? I'm sorry to complain; it's just a pet peeve of mine. Snow has started to fly and I'm already mentally planning my Thanksgiving contributions (found a recipe for whole wheat corn muffins with a dash of cayenne--I may do a trial batch to see if they're worth it) and gift-giving, but I can't do Christmas music yet. I make myself wait until Dec. 1. The only exception may include the Peanuts Christmas because Vince Garabaldi rocks that album.

On the note of gift giving, in this time of economic crisis, do we really need to spend a ton of money on gifts? I've been reading in my magazines about how to give back or use that money to make a donation to a food bank. Or give the gift of your time, like offering to babysit or help someone clean her house if you're super organized. I can't see myself giving nothing, but honestly, I may give this year in the form of something edible for the most part. My sister has no cash but she gardens--I told her to get us some seeds. You know, give something really thoughtful that has more effort than consumerism involved in it. I admit, I look through the catalogues and dog-ear pages, but this year I want to try something different, or at least more thoughtful. I'll let you know how it turns out. Any thoughts?

Crazy Christmas

This year for Christmas DF and I had what I coined the T&K Christmas Roadtrip Extravaganza 006. A-palooza. No, no a-palooza; that's just ridiculous. In some ways, so was our travel: Because we have so many families to see, thanks to multiple marriages, on Christmas Eve we went to my stepfather's and DF's mother's, and on Christmas Day we went to my mom's, then to my grandmother's, then to DF's dad's, then back to my mom's, and then got to our own place at about 10:30 at night. Bear in mind that to my grandmother's and to DF's father's house took about an hour each. Pant, pant. However, as DF's mother put it, we have lots of people who love us and want to see us, so that's very nice. My mom also complimented us on our energy and trouper-ism (sp?), so we felt properly patted on the head for our six-stop holiday. Plus I received some truly nice gifts...my family is lovely and generous and thoughtful, so it was a great holiday. DF and I exchanged gifts at 1am on Christmas Eve, having just come home from a party and unable to wait, like two little kids.

You know, even with all of the traveling and spitty rain, we truly did have a good day. I think we realized how much closer DF and I each felt to each other’s families—we’re more comfortable with each other and it just seems more permanent. Not to sound trite, but we’re gaining family and people who love us. It’s a nice feeling.

Hope everyone had a nice day or two off!