Christmas Revisited

Hi friends! Long time no talk! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I know I certainly did. This years Christmas was very low key but truthfully one of the best I've had.

It all started on Friday when my new camera came! Yes, that's right, I got the Canon Rebel! I have literally been following the boy and the cats around the house taking hundreds of pictures of them. They all love this, I can tell. The boy asked me when I was going to get tired of it, I said NEVER! I have to say that of the three of them, Bailey is by far my best subject. I love the quality of pictures from this camera.

Christmas day started out with the boy making breakfast for me. Cinnamon french toast with orange slices on the side. Yum. French toast is my favorite breakfast food.

My plate:

His plate:

The boy and I had agreed not to buy each other gifts since our gift was the trip to Costa Rica, but after breakfast was over, the boy pulled out a cereal box and said he wanted to get me something small...I was extremely confused but was thinking at least he knows what brand of cereal I like...but apparently he forgot to buy wrapping paper, so he put my gift in an empty cereal box. He is nothing if not resourceful.

Waiting for my inside was Inception on Blu Ray and a Starbucks gift card.

What a bad influence he is. At least he knows the way to my heart is through Starbucks. Which is funny considering the conversation we had the other day:

Me: I think it's a Starbucks kind of day
Boy: Baby, remember, that is a bad boyfriend...
Me: It really is, but I love it and I can't help but to I keep going back
Boy: But you have a good boyfriend and that should be enough for you
Me: But you don't make me feel the way Starbucks makes me feel...
Boy: Warm inside and satisfied?
Me: Yes exactly.

Since we had such a big breakfast, we just had a snack in the afternoon of pigs in a blanket. These were always one of my favorite appetizers, and ever since I saw a frozen version at Trader Joe's a few weeks back, I haven't been able to get them out of my mind, so I knew I had to make them for Christmas. They were just as good as I remembered.

Dinner was pot roast (which actually came out really dry, but the potatoes and carrots were good). I set up a romantic table for two for us.

I know this table looks pretty and romantic NOW but I actually bought the table cloth and the candles on Thursday and in the span of two days picked the table cloth and candles off the floor at least a dozen times (one of the candles actually has a dent in it from being dropped if you look close) because the cats love how easy it is to slide across the table with the table cloth on it. I did not find this as amusing as they did.

Dessert was the boy's favorite...strawberry shortcake. The whipped cream was homemade, but the actual cake part was store bought. It was still delicious and we both practically inhaled it.

After dinner we went to go see Black Swan (movie post coming later in the week) and then came back to booze it up. What's Christmas without a little drunken wrestling? No pictures of that unfortunately, but we had a blast. For the boozing, we both started out with wine.

I switched over to beer when my wine ran out (only had two glasses left in the bottle) and the boy just drank straight out of his bottle of wine that he had been drinking. Nothing says Christmas like hitting the bottle straight up!

Now it's time to bring this monstrous post to a close. With the purchase of my new camera, you can expect to see many more photos on my blog because I am OBSESSED with the new camera.

How was your Christmas? What's your favorite party appetizer?

Holiday Frenzy

Hey there fellow holiday revelers! Four days until Christmas. I haven't recapped any of my holiday happenings as of late so I thought I would do a quick recap today. I do love Christmas, but there are some things about it that just really get to me. Every blog I've read lately has spouted all the joys of Christmas...well sometimes I don't FEEL so joyous.

This year, I didn't have to do hardly any actual Christmas shopping at all since the boy and I are going on a trip instead of buying each other presents.

However, the boy's work Christmas party was this past Saturday. Realizing that I did not have any festive holiday shoes that were not peep toe (it was DAMN COLD so I wanted to be wearing pantyhose and you can't wear pantyhose with peep toe shoes). So I made a colossal mistake. I went to the mall on Friday. I really didn't think it would be that bad...after all, it was the middle of the day and it was a weekday so it couldn't be that bad, right?? WRONG.

After driving around for twenty minutes looking for a spot, I stalked someone coming out of the mall for their spot. I threw on my "emergency" flats that I keep in my backseat (since I wear heels everyday) and ventured to the crosswalk. A very nice person stopped to let me cross. From practically a quarter of a mile down the road I see a car coming the opposite way. "I have plenty of time" I thought to myself. But oh wait, that's when she started to speed up. At this point I hestitated, thinking either she doesn't see me, or she is aiming for me. I am already half way across the street as she comes zooming up to turn into the garage entrance a few feet from me. She narrowly misses me by about two inches. I was so angry, that I did something I have never done before. I slapped the back of her car with my hand to let her know just how pissed I was. She merely glanced back at me and proceeded to zoom off to beat someone into a choice spot. So much for holiday spirit.

After wandering around the mall for about an hour, trying every store they had for a pair of holiday shoes, I left shoeless. All that and I didn't end up with what I came for, all I ended up with was a lovely pair of blisters from my "emergency" flats that have been bothering me ever since.

Flash forward to Saturday night for the boy's holiday party, which actually was quite nice. It was a catered dinner at a nice function hall south of Boston. As is typical at these holiday functions, there were raffles. Each person received a raffle ticket. Since the raffle was done later in the night, a few people at our table had left, leaving us with their raffle tickets. We won one of the smaller prizes, a $50 gas card. Then the grand prize is announced. It's a 5 day 4 night stay anywhere in the continental U.S., but if everyone participates in a dance contest, they will up the prize to anywhere in the U.S. or Europe. Well hot DOG. We danced our butts off. The time for the drawing comes and the boy and I are thinking our chances are really good with our fistful of raffle tickets. But alas, we didn't win. As a matter of fact, a girl who no longer worked with the company and was essentially party crashing won the grand prize. We were both soured on the party after that. Where is the justice I ask you?

Yesterday was my office Christmas party, which was an Italian catered lunch. The food was pretty good, but no prizes :( I'm a prize girl, I like the satisfaction of winning something. But oh well. Times are tough I suppose.

I also have a confession to make. I did not put up a single Christmas decoration this year. The problem with that is that I amassed a collection of Christmas decorations with the fuzz and I don't feel right about putting them up now that the boy lives with me. Something about looking at all those Christmas decorations will make me think of Christmases past and I would rather think of Christmases future. So the boy and I will have to work on a new collection for next year. I also just didn't put any up because I am lazy. Don't judge.

And then there is the constant barrage of Christmas cookies. Everytime I turn around, someone is bringing Christmas cookies into the office. Y'all know I have NO willpower when it comes to cookies. How am I supposed to avoid holiday weight gain when people are constantly wafting cookies under my nose??

Truth be told I will be slightly happy when Christmas is over, I can go back to shopping at the mall without fearing for my life and go back to work without fear of getting fat.

Tell me about your work Christmas party. Any tales of Christmas stress you would like to share?