Kentucky Christmas

We picked out our Christmas tree the first weekend in December, and found the perfect tree we named Gandalf. I don't have a picture of him. I did, though, capture Courtney and Sam turning into macho-girls.

Then, Santa left me the perfect Christmas gift. Or, rather, he left Mosby the perfect gift. Or he gave Mosby…himself? I'm not sure what the correct interpretation of that picture is. 

 We had our house Christmas early, while everyone was still in town. We ate Cathedral Windows and Corn Flakes Wreaths while we unwrapped gifts.

Christy certainly knows the way to my heart. This was the perfect companion to Sam's gift for me, which was The Bread Bible. I predict our house will smell very good this year.

You know that's right. 

So, Mosby is a very spoiled cat. I freely admit I am partially to blame for this. I also freely admit his aunties are also partially to blame for this. Aunt Sam got him an Angry Bird for Christmas, much to his delight.

Mosby's mommy also got an Angry Bird (although not from Sam, so this was a coincidence, not a premeditative pairing), so we match. How cute are we?

Christmas Eve I rushed back from work to celebrate the holiday with my KY family. I really enjoyed getting to experience their traditions, and I really, really enjoyed getting a cheesecake pan in their gift exchange "game" (that I may or may not have brought myself).

The best part of the evening was getting to be with my buddies and see them enjoy the Christmas festivities. Tyler went from showing us his "face" to trying to walk around while keeping a bow on his head. That is one Christmas present I would take!

Christmas day Sam and I went to my church and then came home and made a Christmas ham with all the fixin's. We watched It's A Wonderful Life and then in the evening I had Christmas Morning with my family. Thanks, Apple, for giving us FaceTime!

My sisters have ensured that I will have plenty to do in the kitchen this year. I got bread pans, cooking utensils, a gravy separator, and…doughnut pans!

To sum up my Christmas, here's this:

I love Christmas!

Christmas with Family

I made it home for a week(ish) around my mom's birthday, and we took advantage of having the whole family home for a day to go get the Christmas tree. I repeated the tree picking process a week later to kick off the Kentucky Christmas festivities, but that's an entirely different post. We went to the same tree farm we've gone to for the past decade or more, and, while I tried to rescind my opinion on "pokey" trees (more commonly known as Scotch Pines), we picked out a White Pine like we've done for the past twenty-five Christmases (and maybe longer…those are the only ones I can attest to).

While everyone else took the tree choosing seriously, I spent more time with my camera. The lighting that particular day was outstanding. The color I was getting made me want to just keep taking photos. So I did.

We finally just had to choose one so we could get home and make a birthday dinner for Mom. Try as we did, we couldn't get her to leave the kitchen and let us cook. What's the good of having grown (and mostly grown) daughters if you still have to cook your own birthday dinner?

We made her stuffed shells (which were amazing) and garlic bread and a salad and a german chocolate cake. And successfully managed to kick her out of the kitchen.

My family, for the most part, cancelled their weekly activities to be home, and we got some quality Bananagrams playing time. We also fit in a basketball game and I let Kaitlyn drive away in my car. By herself. That was weird.

While the trip seemed to fly by, it was great to get some time there. Due to being in a wedding the week after Christmas and working in retail, I couldn't squeeze in getting home for Christmas itself. I did get to spend some time with my family on Christmas day via Skype, though, and got to celebrate the day with my roommate and church family. While different, I definitely enjoyed the Christmas season (and got some fun kitchen things too!) I'll try to get some KY Christmas (and wedding) pictures up soon.