Christmas - Pocono's Style

Doug and I tend to do something different every year for Christmas. Some years we are out in Utah visiting my fam, other years we're with his familyin Philly and we've done xmas by ourselves up in Vermont. This year, we decided to have our own celebration on Christmas Eve and then join up with his family for the rest of the weekend...I love having time to just settle in and chill before the craziness of the holiday ensues.

On Christmas Eve morning, we went up to our lake house, wrapped all of our gifts, cooked and baked like mad (well, one of us did) and just hung out.

Our stockings hung by the chimney with whatever that would hold them down since we don't have fancy stocking hangers.


Our little place (before the massive snow storm)


Late in the day, we took Zoe for a good walk across the lake, which is about 5 inches thick of ice.


I think the fish were celebrating with some bubbly under there


No, that's not a wrinkle on my chin - it's hair. That would be a sad place for a wrinkle at my age.


Zoe looked like a Polar Bear - hopping from snow patch to snow patch






Once we got home from our adventure, we sat down to a comfy dinner of Tofurky, garlic mashed potatoes, bread, carrot/green bean "medley" and some fancy wine.


After dinner, we got to my favorite part...gift giving! Cheesy, I know, but according to that purple book that most newlywed's get (Five Languages of Love), gift giving is my language of love. It's so hard for me to keep a secret, that I rarely make it to xmas without giving Doug some of his gifts along the way. Luckily (or not), his bday is on the 23rd, so it's kind of like gifting heaven around our house all week!


My gem of a husband got me some beautiful jewelry and a trip back to Utah IN A WEEK!! He figured I hadn't gotten enough of skiing, er, seeing my family, so he's sending me back out there. (I actually just had the thought that maybe he just wanted a weekend to himself, hmmm).

Some gems from my gem:) (Don't worry, my pinky is fine)


I got Doug a painting from an artist that we have both known since she was a munchkin and is now quite acclaimed, so he was pretty psyched with that. He also got some other small things like cufflinks, socks and TOMS.

The slug with his new painting in the apt.


Family photo - sans Ciena (she was with the in-laws)


We rearranged our living room for Thanksgiving and haven't moved it back, hence why it looks like our place is 10x10...it's actually like 13x10, so there's much more room;)

Christmas morning we got up at 6am to drive down to Doug's sister's house outside of Philly to watch our nieces and nephews open their gifts. I don't know what it is with these kids, but they had to be woken up at 9am to come open their gifts. When I was a kid, my mom and dad would catch us sneaking into the living room at 3am to peek through the white tissue paper wrapping...I always had butterflies so badly that I couldn't sleep for days before Christmas. Maybe I was just a greedy child. I'm pretty sure that if I slept in until 9, my parents would've checked the bathroom cabinets to make sure I hadn't drunk bathroom cleaner. Once the kiddos opened their gifts (taking turns and nicely admiring each others gifts as opposed to ripping open everything on your side and not caring what anyone else got), we jumped on the trampoline for an hour and then headed off to Doug's Aunt's house for another feast and then headed back to the lake house for the rest of the night.

All-in-all, we had a wonderful Christmas! And, one of the best gifts of all was the snow-pocalypse that NYC got on the 26th...SNOW DAY FOR ME on Monday!!



I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! And I'll chat with you again next year;)

Early Christmas

Doug and I try to see both of our families for Christmas every year, yes, mostly because we want to be fair and we love seeing everyone, but I'd be lying if I said that the skiing didn't play into our decision to get to Utah. We weren't in town very long, but we skied everyday and hung out with family the rest of the time, it was perfect!

We had Christmas with my dad on Saturday night and with my mom on Sunday. My dad gave me a new camera for skiing (small, pocket size), so we tested it out a bit.

Dad testing out Kelli's new camera


Adam and Brandon stopped by!


Kyle with Lola bean


Too school for cool - Whit


Utah has double the snow base they had this time last year, so we knew the skiing would be at least decent, but we hit the lottery. It snowed 50 inches in 48 hours and made everything a winter wonderland. We were having so much fun, that I didn't really stop to take many pictures. Here are the few I snagged.

Happy mama


Fearless driver


Game face


Look at that fluff!!


Pillows everywhere!


Doug the slug shreddin' the gnar;)


It's always to hard coming back to the crazy city after spending quality time in the mtns...I shed a little tear getting on the plane:(

Happy holidays from our family to yours! Unfortunately, we didn't get around to Christmas cards (with the move and our dog situation), so we will be sending New Years cards instead!

Obsessed

Of course for Christmas I want world peace and a healthy planet and I know that buying material things doesn't bring either of those things, but it's so hard to not get sucked into consumerism! I guess what makes me feel better is doing about 75% of my shopping on Etsy this year. I am so addicted...I could spend hours typing in different search terms and whatever comes up is such a fun surprise!

Some of my current obsessions...

Great wooden jewelry


Bed side table


Picture frame


Garden for my new balcony!


More jewelry


So, if you're looking for any last minute gifts check out Etsy! And no, they aren't paying me to say that. I actually wish someone would pay me for anything I had to say. Maybe I'll ask for that for next Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

I'm In!!

It's officially, official, I'm in the 2011 Boston Marathon!!







Now I will be one of those blue-jacket wearing super heroes! (wink, wink CKH)