The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Sunday morning, Chris and I celebrated our Christmas together. Since I leave to go home Thursday, it was our last weekend morning together before the actual holiday. 

We woke up and made our Christmas breakfast of muffins, bacon and hot chocolate, and then settled down to open our presents. 

                                                          Eggnog muffins for Xmas morning

First, Chris opened his present from my fam, a sweater which he loved and wore later that day (looked great and fit him perfect). 

Then, it was my turn to open his present from me. As I'm wont to do, I'd been trying to guess what it was since he put it under the tree. The box most closely resembled a shoe box, but I had a hard time believing that he would buy me shoes. As I started to unwrap, Chris told me that there was an explanation that went along with the present. As a veteran of my family, I am used to this, as our presents tend to come in the form of card with picture/poem, and an explanation of why the object isn't actually there in physical form/when it will be coming.

So, when I opened Chris's box to reveal a can of bike lubricant, I immediately feared that he was getting me a bike. This seemed unlikely since I don't ride bikes and don't like bikes, and have mentioned this several times. Still, I didn't know what else to think. 

Until Chris went to the closet and pulled out a much larger box, which I came to understand was actually my present. The bike lubricant was completed unrelated, and the shoe-sized box was just a diversion. He didn't want to put the real box under the tree and thus give me time to guess what it was. 

So, with joy and relief, I began to unwrap my actual present. There are no words for how surprised I was or how much I love it. The pictures will have to speak for themselves, but let me just say: much better than bike lubricant. Or a bike for that matter. 

                Glamor shots of my wonderful Christmas present from the wonderful boy I live with.

Then Chris opened his present from me, which was a nice pair of dark jeans to wear to work and go with his sweater and new grown-up persona. After gift-giving, we watched Love Actually, to further deepen our Christmas spirit. 

Leaving the mess behind, we eventually changed out of our pajamas and went to his mom's house, where we were having a little family party to celebrate Chris's birthday. I also used it as an opportunity to give his family my Christmas gifts to them, and received their gifts to me: a great, big L.L. Bean bag from Margaret, inside of which was a smaller cosmetic bag, inside of which was a cute headband. From Stephanie I got a manicure kit with two nail polishes, which will come hugely in handy, as I repaint my nails about twice a week. 

From there, we headed to his dad's house for his Christmas party. Starved by that point, we spent the first twenty minutes being anti-social and stuffing our faces, but eventually joined the party-goers to participate in actual conversation.

When we finally got home, we changed back into our pajamas, made ourselves a little Christmas drink, and stared at the mess in our living room without making any attempt whatsoever to clean it up. 

                                              The remains of Christmas. We'll clean up later!

A very merry Christmas indeed.

Reunited (it'll feel so good)

Well, the weekend is almost here (hooray!).

For my part, I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of my three dear girlfriends from New Orleans, who are arriving Saturday evening to decompress from their finals, and visit the boy and I.  I have not seen Alexa and Sara since May, and I have not seen Hannah for almost a year! So, it will be a very happy reunion.

As far as I'm concerned, a huge chunk of the agenda is watching Sex and the City DVDs, and continuing the (several) vigorous conversations we've all had about which one of us is which one of them. Chris, as you could imagine, is very excited.

Have a good weekend!

Merry Christmakkah...

This weekend, the celebrations began. On Friday, Chris and I hosted friends Caitlin and Steven, as well as Chris's mom and sister, for a Hanukkah dinner. Being the first time I had undertaken a Jewish meal of such magnitude, I planned it down to the wire, and it actually came out pretty ok. 

Our menu included: brisket (many thanks to Barbara Brown for the easy and delicious recipe), latkes (many thanks to Chris for peeling all the potatoes), applesauce (again, many thanks to Chris for peeling all of the apples), and kugel, which I made using my grandmother's recipe, which had to be verified and edited several times. But which was extremely delicious. 

In an effort to time everything precisely, I made the brisket Thursday night, where it tortured us by smelling delicious for three hours in the oven. We also did the apples on Thursday, by which I mean Chris did the hard part by peeling them all, and I helped him slice them. 

When we got home from work on Friday we went, well, straight to work putting the rest of the meal together. I mapped out my burners and set the applesauce on the left back burner. Meanwhile, Chris peeled potatoes. The water for the kugel noodles went on the front right burner, and while it boiled, I changed and got ready. Meanwhile, Chris peeled potatoes. I then added the noodles and tended to the applesauce, while, you guessed it, Chris peeled potatoes. When the noodles were done, I put the rest of the kugel together and stuck it in the oven. Chris, bored (and finished) with peeling potatoes, began, instead, to grate them. A hard-working goyim!

The brisket reheating in its yummy juices and the applesauce doing its thing, it came time to face the latkes. I had grated the onions and Chris had drained everything, so when the oil was heated, it was time to fry. Chris entertained our guests, and, in between sips of red wine, our potato pancakes got made. 

Rather than simply allowing everyone to eat as soon as dinner was ready, we all gathered in the living room to light the candles. When that was done, I figured I had denied my guests long enough, so we all crowded around the dining room table to eat and eat and eat. Chris's mom gave us wine glasses as our Hanukkah present, which were immediately put to use. Suffice it to say, we were very full and satisfied. 

                                            From left to right: applesauce, brisket, latkes. Yum.

                                                                         Full up!                                                          

                                                     Opening our Hanukkah presents!                                                 

 

Lovely. Will go to good use.  

On Saturday, Chris and I woke up and headed downtown to run the Jingle Bell 5K. It's a race to benefit arthritis, and included with your number, you get two jingle bells to pin on your shirt or tie on your shoelaces. The effect, as you might guess, is a very noisy race that jingles along for three miles. The weather was gorgeous, though, and we had a lot of fun. I'm a bit out of shape, but, as one of the basketball players holding signs up along the route said, "Santa will know if you walk." So, we ran it out.

After leftover brisket for lunch, we switched into Christmas mode, and headed out to buy wrapping paper, a few ornaments, and our Christmas tree. More so than paying rent, having my own Christmas tree makes me feel very grown up. Saturday night we stayed in, ate pizza, watched a movie, and decorated. 

                                                          Christmas tree in the living room. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmakkah!