Christmas Recap

We Taylors are back in Orlando after a week in Ohio. Let me tell you the week just FLEW by. When we got to Columbus the temperature was in the single digits, we had rain and ice early in the week and then by Saturday it was 65 degrees crazy huh? The day we arrived in Ohio we ran some pre-Christmas food related errands and thus began the eating fest! That night mom made chicken sausages and then Nicole came over and made some amazing potato pancakes. So good! The next day mom and I ran to Whole Foods for yet more Christmas food and then my cousin Susan came over with her daughter Josephine and our cousin Francoise and we all went to lunch. It was so great seeing them and reminded me that I really need to keep in better touch with everyone. I'm for sure going to work on that in the new year. Tuesday evening after Susan dropped me, Mike and my dad back at the house Andrew came to pick us up so that we could hang out with him and Nicole for a while. We get to the apartment and decided it wasn't rainy enough to skip the zoo so we head out. Now due to the rain and the very very cold temperatures the parking lot and streets in the complex were iced over and we didn't make it out of the complex before hitting a patch of ice and skidding right into a fire hydrant! Poor Andrew's car was a bit of a mess so me and Nicole headed back to the apartment while the boys tried to change the tire but AAA ended up getting a call and our night at the Zoo turned into pizza and Wii at the apartment which was actually a lot of fun and me and Nicole couldn't stop laughing!



Christmas Eve Mom picked us up from Nicole and Andrew's apartment and off we went to the grocery store for you guessed it more Christmas food! Then we headed home and started getting ready for the evenings festivities. That night our friends Lisa and Mark came over with their adorable little boy Alex and we ate A LOT! Nicole made a cheese ball and this blue cheese dip that is to die for and she made her now famous rice balls! Mom made spinach dip and shrimp scampi and Lisa brought an artichoke and spinach dip that was also amazing! After dinner we opened some presents, we laughed a lot, everyone made fun of me for taking so many pictures and we all tried to convince Mark that a trip to Disney was in order! Then it was on to dessert! Yep because all that food wasn't enough we had dessert! Mom made cookies and Lisa brought her Ricotta Cake which I've actually had dreams about and this year she brought a brownie trifle and these cookie dough truffles that were seriously seriously delicious and we ended up fighting over the leftovers (not seriously fighting just a friendly tussle!) Christmas morning I woke up way early, I was like a little kid again waiting for everyone else to wake up so we could open presents! Me and my sister spent some time with my grandmother and when everyone else woke up it was time for presents. Part of our Christmas morning tradition is that me and my dad (and this year Andrew) have a cup of eggnog, we listen to Mario Lanza's Christmas album and midway through the gift opening mom presented us each with a delicious hot, fried meatball! Wheaties has got NOTHING on these true breakfast of champions!!! Santa was very good to all of us and there were smiles all around.






The rest of Christmas was spent doing more eating and playing games. Christmas dinner has always been traditionally mom's baked ziti with meatballs, sausage and veal spidinis. We ate like eating was going out of style and by the time dessert time rolled around we couldn't do it! So we saved it for the next day and I'm glad because I didn't want to be sick to my stomach while eating my absolute favorite dessert in the world - Cassata Cake! The rest of the trip was spending time with the family, watching football, shopping and playing games! It was a good trip and always good to be with the family at Christmas.



By the time we got home yesterday we were exhausted but we got unpacked and the laundry started ordered some food and relaxed. Today we've been hanging out at home catching up on DVRed TV shows and watching some of the movies Andrew got us for Christmas. We watched Just Friends with Ryan Reynolds - super funny and now we are watching Office Space which I'm totally digging.

I've been zipping through Kevin Smith's My Boring Ass Life and I'm loving it. I'm even more convinced that Mr. Smith is not only one funny guy but a genius on many levels. Have a bunch of books on the to read list after this one but I'm sure I'll be done with this book in a day or two. Mike is off work until Monday so we are going to hang out, watch movies and spend quality time with the fur babies who absolutely missed us I'm thinking since they've been attached to us since we walked in the door yesterday!

Now we are gearing up for New Year's as always we will stay home and eat junk and just be together, I plan on writing a 2008 recap tomorrow so stay tuned!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and that everyone is happy and healthy and ready to ring in the New Year!