A Very Merry Christmas

Our Christmas festivities began last night with Christmas Eve at my in-laws' house.

Well, first we all went to Mass... my mom, Hunter, my grandma, my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, Michael and me.

But then we went to my in-laws' for a feast. It's their Christmas Eve tradition to cook this HUGE seafood meal. Unfortunately, I have to throw a wrench in their plans because I don't eat seafood. Thankfully, my mother-in-law is very understanding and had some chicken there for me, too. :) Not that it was really necessary--I definitely could have gotten by just eating all of the sides!

While my mother-in-law did her "thing" in the kitchen, Cristina, Michael, and I snacked and watched Christmas movies (Elf and Home Alone).

After a few mishaps (the kitchen faucet stopped working = no water in the kitchen), we finally sat down for the much anticipated meal.

Michael snapped this photo of his plate. This is linguine and clam sauce with shrimp and scallops. And this is only the first course!

We took our time eating, staying at the table to relax, drink, and talk for a long time afterward. We finally moved back into the kitchen for clean-up, and then to the living room for presents! We received a lot of nice things. After dessert, it was late and time to head home.

This morning, we woke up and got set to open our presents here at home.

Do you see what Santa brought us, sitting under the tree?

Here's a closer look:

Yayyyy! (I think we were the last people on Earth without a Wii.)

Of course, Santa didn't forget about Tessa. It's funny because she always knows when her stocking is full, and she gets very curious about it.

Michael was good to me, too. I got a new iPod Nano, among other things. I had been getting by with my old iPod Mini, which looks like a freaking boat compared to what Apple has out now.

After exchanging our gifts at home, we headed over to my mom's house for the next Christmas celebration. My brothers, their ladies, and Hunter were all over. Shortly after arriving, we made piles of gifts for each person and sat down to go to town. Again, we got some really nice gifts for which we are extremely grateful!

It was really fun having Hunter around this year. He's still too young to know much about what's going on, but it was fun watching him play with the wrapping paper. He got a lot of useful gifts like clothes, diapers, and even baby food! But the biggest present was sent from my dad...

Here's Hunter sitting on top of it. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation, but sure did like the bow!

It's a new car seat! Woohooo! (You can tell he's excited.) Little man is getting big and will have to graduate to the bigger car seat soon.

Once again, Tessa was not forgotten. She loves her new toys.

After presents, we had a big breakfast that included pumpkin pancakes. From there, we all packed up all of our loot and went our separate ways for a while. Michael and I went home, hooked up our Wii, and relaxed for a bit. Later, we went back to my mom's for an awesome Christmas dinner (delicious lasagna!).

We're already exhausted and we still have another Christmas gathering to go... we'll be up again to do it all again tomorrow.

As for all of you blog readers... thank you for continuing to visit me here at Heather Drive. I hope your holiday was as wonderful as mine.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!