Christmas 2008

Christmas always seems to sneak up on me. We generally leave for Aruba right after Thanksgiving and we don't return until the Saturday before Christmas. Being home less than a week before Christmas day doesn't really leave a lot of time to get into the swing of everything. Also, if someone had asked me about what Christmas traditions we have, I would have said that we really didn't have any. But then I realized that we do have some little ones and this year I think we may have started some new ones too.

Christmas eve day I dropped Maisie off at PLAY in the morning, for drop off care, so that I could have some time to get a little cooking done for Christmas day dinner. I got the Cornish Game Hens marinating and I made the custard for the English Sherry Trifle. Then it was time to pick up Maisie and we told her that while she napped, one of Santa's elves would come and bring her Christmas tree. So while she slept we put up our tree and left one wrapped present for her. Our tree is only two feet tall with lights and ornaments permanently attached so pulling it out of it's storage bag and plugging it in was easy peasy. We told her it was a very small elf that brought the tree and maybe next year a bigger elf would come with a bigger tree but honestly she's thrilled with her tree and never asked for a bigger one. We then let her open her present and it was a video which she wanted to watch immediately whilst wearing one of her fairy costumes.

While she was watching the video I made potato latkes which for us, is a Christmas eve tradition. We all gorged ourselves on the latkes and then headed out for a drive to see all the pretty Christmas lights. When we returned home Maisie sprinkled reindeer food in the back yard and then it was bedtime. Maisie was beyond excited and getting her to sleep was not easy. This morning she couldn't wait to see if Santa brought her presents and when she saw all the gifts under the tree she was so excited and had such fun opening all her gifts. We spent the morning watching another one of her new videos and playing with her new toys, then it was nap time for all of us.

Each year Eammon puts in his request for Christmas dinner. In years past we've had goose, duck, roast beef or lamb but this year he requested Cornish Game Hens, stuffing, corn bread and our traditional Christmas English Sherry Trifle. We had a really nice dinner together and everything was delicious. It was a nice day with no rushing around, no schedule, no where to go and all-in-all just a relaxing day home together as a family.

Hope that everyone had a great day too. Merry Christmas.