I'm a terribly optimistic person, just ask my family, it's annoying. However, I have to say that 2011 wasn't my best year. Rather than dwell on it, I will say that it ended on a pretty good note. It's hard not to be happy and optimistic around the holidays, especially when I have great friends and family to share it with. My parents have been here with us since mid-December.
This past week of Christmas celebrations seems to have flown by, I didn't get out of work until the Thursday evening and then it was full steam ahead. I had a full blown, nasty, 3 week long cold before the holiday. I finally got to feeling better a few days before Christmas, but it meant I still had a lot on my To-Do list. There were last minute gifts to pick up, the house to clean and food to prepare. We did Christmas eve at JT's Aunt's house. She has a beautiful home, delicious food and is the most elegant of hostess. Rather than try to live up to that, the next day at our house was casual. Very casual.
We had the usual Christmas morning excitement. For the past several years it seems that the grown-ups in the house are up long before the kids. We had already downed a cup of coffee before the boys came out. Highly caffeinated Grandparents made for some laughs as we opened gifts. The boys have a lot less toys under the tree now that they are older but they still did very good. Sean got his BMX bike and Cam got a new phone and a chess set. They also got some video games and lots of money.
This is most of the family on Christmas day.
We did "home-made" gifts this year for the family, I "made" vases with flowers rather than subject people to my baking. Plus, it's better for their health!
As soon as the presents were open, we had to clean up and prep for the day. I did pretty good on the cooking front, except I messed up the lemon Meringue Tarts, by forgetting to put lemon in them, LOL. We quickly dumped them, and they were not missed amoungst the copious amount of food we were serving. Luckily the weather was beautiful and we were able to seat some of the 15 guests outdoors. The highlight of the meal was Sean's Snowmen Cupcakes. He got a cupcake book from his aunt last year and took it upon himself to make these. They were so cute!
Hard at work in the kitchen (actually most of the food came with the guests, I had it easy!)
Cute, but a little creepy, Snowmen Cupcakes.
I think I finally sat down at around 8pm on Christmas but it had been a good day. Since then I have been chillaxing, shopping, cycling and hanging with my folks. There will be more of the same in the week after New Year.
All the best for 2012!
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