Christmas 2013 Recap

I took a nice long break from blogging (and real life!) over the last couple of weeks and celebrated a wonderful Christmas with my family. Today I'm back in action and although everyone has moved onto New Year's, I'm finally getting around to sharing our Christmas 2013 Recap.

Since my office was closed during the week of Christmas, I ended work on December 20 feeling so ready to welcome the holidays in all of their glory. I spent most of Saturday cleaning, organizing and prepping snacks for a visit from my favorite West Coaster, and my long time bff, Catherine. She was in town for Christmas, and man was it so great to spend a few hours with her! Of course, I didn't get to snap a photo this time, but here's a sweet throwback from my bridal shower back in 2008:

 

As usual, time was too fleeting!

Sunday we headed to Brooklyn for brunch at Kimberly and Nick's apartment. Once again, I was having too much fun eating and mingling to remember to snap a few photos, but I did steal this photo of their beautiful (and enormously tall!) tree. Gotta love apartments with high ceilings!

 

Monday was spent relaxing and doing that last bit of gift wrapping while also making this awesome corn dip for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Again, no photos. Sorry! Just trust me, it was so so good and with a couple of edits, this is my new favorite dip.

Tuesday morning, we were up and out bright and early for our annual Christmas Eve breakfast with my family. My dad started taking us to breakfast on Christmas Eve as kids in order to give my mom some solo time at home to prep for the evening's festivities. Now that we're grown, she joins us. And I was really excited to introduce this tradition to Penelope! 

Lots of Christmas Eve breakfasts in her future, for sure ;)

 

I cannot get over her. Sigh.

After breakfast, we headed back to the house to prepare for the evening. We chopped, plated, decorated and set the tables for a night of food, drink and merriment. 

Of course, Penelope was the belle of the ball.

And her sweet Christmas dress didn't last long...instead, she was in her Santa's Little Helper shirt & leggings in no time.

Though Penelope didn't quite get the whole 'opening presents' thing this year, she did enjoy her fair share of paper (ripping and eating). 

 

We got our first taste of 'put-this-together-right-now' fun, with the whole family cheering us on.

 

Unfortunately, P wasn't so into the put-together version of the toy to actually sit on it and play, but she did admire it from afar.

We also took some photos by the Christmas tree.

Tough to get a good one with a 10 month old in tow.

 

We did manage to get a nice group shot on the stairs:

Late in the evening, Shaun went to church with his family and I stayed behind to relax with mine. Around 1AM, Shaun and I exchanged our gifts. My favorite gift? A new soft and snuggly blanket for our evening couch relaxing. My man knows me so well ;)

On Christmas morning, P actually slept until around 8:00. She then proceeded to actually hug and snuggle with me in bed for a little while.

It was the best Christmas gift I've ever received :)

Once the family was up, we all headed downstairs for leftover cookies, coffee and gift opening.

Santa brought lots of gifts to us all, especially for Penelope.

Note her reindeer feet. #whyarebabypajamasthecutestever

After some relaxing, we got dressed and headed over to Shaun's parents house for Christmas Day celebrations.

Penelope once again received so many generous gifts. That is one lucky girl.

And I, of course, got to dress her in yet another adorable Christmas outfit.

I think I was pictured out by this point, because this is where my photos end. We had a great day with family and headed home late that evening. 

Unfortunately Shaun had to head back to work on Thursday, and I spent the rest of the week snuggling with my little bear. Now it's off to celebrate the New Year! I hope you have a fantastic and safe New Year's Eve...I'll be back in the next couple of days with my hopes for 2014!

xo,

Rachel

Merry Christmas!

...from our family to yours, wishing you a wonderful holiday filled with peace and love!

Weekend

Happy Monday friends!

Is it me or is going to work so much easier during the holiday season? I get to guiltlessly have fun creamers in my coffee and listen to Rockin' Holidays radio on Pandora all day. Somehow presentation writing is much more joyful whilst also grooving to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

How was your weekend? Ours was jam-packed and full of holiday fun. Friday night, we ordered in and started catching up on Homeland (we have a long way to go!) while enjoying the Christmas tree. We were in bed by 11 since we had to be up and at 'em bright and early on Saturday.

Saturday morning we headed down to a nativity breakfast at church with Shaun's parents.

Penelope wanted so badly to just be free to roam on her own.

 

She was also enamored by the kids sing-a-long and story time. I know she was dying to be up there with the big kids, but not til next year!

Afterwards, we headed to my parents house for our annual Cannon side Christmas gathering.

Everyone was able to make the trip, despite the snow.

It is always so fun to have part of my dad's side together to celebrate the holidays.

We even matched Penelope with her cousins Taylor and Gabriella for a sweet photo:

That quickly went south...

The kids opened gifts, while the adults ate tons of food.

All in all, it was a great evening!

The next day, we were up and eating bagels bright and early:

And headed home to accomplish a few things and have some family relaxation time. One big item we crossed off of our list was getting a new rug for the living room!

Our old rug got a good wearing over the last 5+ years, and we decided it was well past time to update it. We picked out a nice, bright cream and beige number that not only transforms the space, but also offers a plush crawling surface for a certain someone.

After we laid the new rug and Penelope got a good crawl and tumble on, we put little Miss to sleep and it was finally time for some relaxing in our revitalized space. What's better than food, a lovingly decorated Christmas tree and an iPad Yule log?

 

I hope you all had a great weekend! Can't wait to kick off my last week of work until Christmas break!