It's Christmas!

We always spend Christmas Day with my family. Usually, we go to my mom and dad's house, but since they've both been working so hard this season, Shawn and I volunteered to do dinner at our house.

In an ambitious moment, I decided to cook a whole turkey with stuffing made from scratch. I had a delicious recipe for apple chestnut stuffing that I had successfully made a few years before. Unfortunately, I waited until the last minute to go shopping and the store was out of chestnuts! I substituted walnuts because a) they're delicious and b) they're so finely chopped you can't tell anyhow. Right?

Shawn and I arose at the crack of dawn to chop and chop and chop ingredients for the stuffing. It took a little longer than expected and the turkey (which we named Trevor) went in a little late. Luckily, he cooked quickly and came out nice and juicy.

My mom, dad, and sister came over around 1:00 PM to eat. I got to use my fancy wedding china for the first time ever. Yes, that's right, we've been married for four and half years and I've never actually used my wedding china! Part of the reason is that I only have five place settings and I rarely have fancy dinners with less than five people. Sadly, the pattern was discounted by Mikasa two years ago, so now my only hope of completing the set will be through eBay.

After dinner the five of us played some games. We tried Family Feud, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Price Is Right, and Wheel of Fortune. Shawn and I totally destroyed my mom and dad at Wheel of Fortune, but Mom killed us at The Price Is Right because she's super lucky.

The five of us had agreed not to exchange gifts, but Shawn and I got little gifts for each of them anyhow. I always get my mom and sister ornaments for their Christmas trees. I also made a fleece scarf for my sister and one of those no-sew fleece blankets for my mom. It had cute cat patterns on it and she seemed to like it a lot (almost as much as she likes cats). My dad got some gift certificates for bowling and a book on Abraham Lincoln.

We both had a nice time with my family and I really enjoyed being the Christmas hostess, even though my recipe choices gave me a little more trouble than I thought they would. It turned out to be a great Christmas!

-- Lisa

Beautiful Day

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

John 1:14 (The Message)

Happy Christmas!

-- Shawn & Lisa

Christmas Eve

Shawn and I always spend Christmas Eve with his family. Everyone packs into Shawn's mom and dad's not-nearly-big-enough house and opens the (literally) hundreds of gifts that are contained inside.

The night begins with a big potluck dinner. Just imagine something like 20 adults and 36 children squeezing into a tiny little basement to eat. It's a bit crowded and loud, but also nice to see everyone in one place enjoying the day together. Shawn and I also brought the traditional "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake. This year, I remembered to get candles so we were able to properly sing "Happy Birthday!"

After dinner it's Santa time. Mr. Claus makes an appearance to deliver bags of presents to the younger kids in the family. This year, our nephew Ronnie played Santa and the youngest kids were very, very excited to see him. This is some of the little ones eagerly anticipating the gifts to come...

After Santa, Shawn's mom and dad give even more gifts to the kids and adults. Shawn and I got a ton of fun gifts from them, including a carpet cleaning vacuum which I have been wanting/needing for awhile now.

Shawn and I also had gifts for our godchildren. I only have one godchild to buy for, but Shawn has five, so we decided to go with a mixture of cash and Webkinz for the kids. Here's Shawn and his goddaughter/niece, Tori, who seems to have liked her gift...

And here are our new nephews. Jenny's son, Austin...

And Cheryl's little Santa baby, Noah...

After all the gifts were opened we played a rousing game of Family Feud. At the end of the night, Shawn and I went to midnight mass together, which we've done every year since we met.

Both of us really enjoy getting to spend Christmas Eve with his family. We are really lucky to have his mom and dad and all his brothers and sisters living so close by and that we all get to spend the holidays together. It's really a blessing to have such a large, close-knit family.

-- Lisa

Christmas in Workland

This year, I organized a holiday gift exchange at work. We actually used a really cool online site called SecretSanta.com to get everyone together. We had about 25 people participating and it turned out really well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and people exchanged some fun gifts. Here's a photo of me taking charge...

I got an awesome Jane Austen biography from my co-worker, Amy. Here I am opening my gift in jubilation...

After the exchange, we had our department's holiday lunch at Wild Ginger. The food was very fancy and also very delicious. I got chicken with sweet potato fries. I was so impressed by the presentation, that I had to take a picture (clearly, I am a very sophisticated diner)...

And here's my most favorite work friends posing with me for a picture. That's Susan, Maggie, Lisa, and me (the three of us to the right also wore our matching bib-style shirts)...

After lunch, we got to leave work early and the four of us went and did some Christmas shopping. I got some fun books and gifts, which I cannot yet reveal (I don't want to spoil the surprise for the recipients!).

-- Lisa

Christmas Gospel Brunch

Yesterday, my best friend, Kristina, and I went to the House of Blues for our Christmas celebration. Every Sunday they have a Gospel Brunch which is the perfect mix of rousing gospel music and delicious Southern-style cooking. Here's this week's singer and her band...

And here's Kristina and I after enjoying some crawfish cheesecake and grits...

I would highly recommend the event. The food is incredible and the singing and music are inspiring and awesome. The musicians also interact with the audience (like at church), which is fun and different (well, it's only different if you're used to Catholic services, like me).

Very cool, very merry. Thanks, Kristina, for suggesting it!

-- Lisa

A Very Pottery Christmas

For the last few years, Shawn and I haven't exchanged Christmas gifts with our adults relatives and friends. Instead, we try to do a unique holiday activity together. So, in the spirit of spending time together, last night, I went out with two of my friends from work, Susan and Maggie. We decided to go to a local pottery painting shop called Artist for a Day. It's actual a pretty neat place. You pay a fee to use their paint and supplies to decorate a blank piece of pottery. The new piece of artwork is then fired in the kiln and ready for pickup the next week. Here's the three of us in the workshop (from left to right it's Susan, me, and Maggie)...

It is also an awesome place to go because they will let you bring in your own food and drinks. We split a giant pizza and a bottle of (slightly bitter) red wine. Lots of people seemed to be enjoying their pottery painting time and more than one person was envious of our brilliant idea to bring in snacks.

I painted a little cross in a stained glass pattern. Maggie did an awesome looking mug and Susan made two music-themed light switch covers. Here's a photo of my fabulous creation (too bad I'm not much of an artist)...

-- Lisa

Welcome, Boys!

Shawn and I are excited to announce that we have two new nephews!

The first, Austin, was born on November 27th. He's the son of Shawn's sister, Jenny, and also a ginormous baby — 11 pounds, 5 ounces! Our other nephew, Noah, was born on December 10th. He's the son of Shawn's sister, Cheryl, and not quite as big as his older cousin!

Both moms and babies are home now and doing great!

-- Lisa

PS - We now offically have 19 nieces and 17 nephews. Whoa...

Oh, Christmas Tree

Yesterday, we finally got around to putting up our Christmas tree. I usually do it before the first Sunday in advent, but last weekend was just too busy (we had some family and friends over to watch the Browns, sadly, lose). But this weekend was wide open. So we broke out the pre-lit tree and the ornaments. Here's a photo of our assembled and illuminated tree...

And these are some of my favorite ornaments. This is an ornament my grandma gave me for me first Christmas way back in 1980 (Shawn doesn't have a counterpart for it though. Being the youngest of ten kids, I'm not surprised that he and all his siblings didn't get their own personalized Christmas ornaments!)...

This one is from our first Christmas together (in 2002). It used to play a little song when you pressed a button on the bottom, but now it just makes a weird buzzing noise (apparently, this ornament and our love are old)...

This is one of the many mailman-themed ornaments we have to honor Shawn's profession...

And this is possibly one of my favorites. This ornament came out in 2005 to commemorate the life of Pope John Paul II. I like to call it the Pope-ament...

And that's the tour of our tree! Sorry some of the pictures are blurry. It's hard to get close up shots of these tiny little decorations.

-- Lisa