Post Christmas Wrap Up!

Not that long ago I decided I was going to attempt to post a single post everyday for one full year. 365 posts. I've already missed 2 posts. The first because I was just overwhelmed and exhausted. The 2nd was yesterday. 

Yesterday was Christmas. 
I celebrate Christmas. 
Maybe not in the same way a lot of people do, but I celebrate. 
Christmas to me is a time for family, a time for giving and a time for joy. 

This was my Christmas:

Christmas Eve the hubs, the girls and I went to his Aunt D's house.  We noshed, we gifted, we caught up with family members we hadn't seen in 6 months and others we hadn't seen in a year or more.  I really enjoy these gatherings and the opportunity to catch up. 

We returned home around 8:30 p.m.

Lulu and I still had some baking to do, and Thi-Thi still had some mochis to sew.  Lulu and I made the dough and baked the gluten free empanadas and stolen. Both turned out lovely, but I want to play with the dough to see how truly thin we can roll it. The next time we make the dough, I'll share the link to the blog we found it on, along with pictures of whatever we are baking with it. I parboiled the potatoes (ala Jamie Oliver's Christmas Baked Smashed Potatoes) and we made Gluten Free cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls were my absolute favorite. We had been looking for a grain free recipe that was still soft and tasty. These hit the spot! Again we want to play with this recipe to see if we can make larger rolls (keep in mind with grain free the dough doesn't rise). 

Then of course the kitchen had to be cleaned up. I washed and dried dishes.

I always wrap presents on Christmas Eve. I have visions of wrapping things as I get them (and visions of getting things through out the year) so that on Christmas Eve I just need to pull out the gifts and put them under the tree. There is always next year. 

I finished wrapping a few minutes past midnight. I went to bed. Originally I thought if I finished my Christmas preparations by 10:00 p.m. I would do a simply Merry Christmas blog and set it to auto-post. By 10:30 I realized I would not be able to prep a post. I thought about blogging Christmas Day after breakfast, and after my girls did presents. 

Then is was 7:30 Christmas morning and time for me to get up. Fortunately, we trained our girls early to wait on Christmas morning. They were not allowed to get up and run down stairs and open presents. Our rule was that they had to wait to go down stairs until Mom and Dad had gone downstairs and had coffee AND that they had to wait to open presents until my parents arrived in the morning. They could open stockings but everything else had to wait. So my girls have always slept in on Christmas morning. 

This year I actually had to wake them up. 

I got the cinnamon roll dough out of the fridge to let it come to room temperature.  I put the empanadas and the stolen in the oven to warm up. I set the table and rearranged the furniture. 

My parents arrived at 8:30 (which is early for them, usually it is closer to 9:30), and we had breakfast before we even did stockings or presents.  After breakfast the girls opened their stockings, the hubs opened his stocking and I opened my stocking. 

Last year, Lulu took on the task of filling my stocking. The year before that she asked why my stocking was mostly empty. I told her that because I do all the stockings it is tough for me to come up with my own stocking stuffers. Instead I just put in my toothbrush, razor refills, soap and a chocolate item that we all get. Everything else in the stockings is personal to that person. 

Last year, Lulu worked the previous summer and had some money so she bought a lot of items and filled my stocking. It was touching. I thought it was the best stocking ever! Then I opened my stocking this year. While I had limited funds this year, she had only $10. She bought my favorite tea and a chocolate bar (with Chai spice) but what made this stocking the best ever was the rest of the items she made. She made me hand warmers which she stitched a peacock feather and a heart in peacock colors on. She made me a bracelet and a wire pendant. She made me an infinity scarf and I am sure I missed something, but it made me so happy I nearly cried. 

My girls received all hand made items from me and Santa and Thi-Thi stated "Best Christmas Ever"

While they received items that were from Amazon and/or store bought they items that made them happy and everyone else happy were the items that were handmade for them or by them. 

They were both super excited to be giving out hand drawn cards, candles and soaps they made along with some sewn crafts. I'll let Lulu tell you about the Studio Ghibli basket she made her sister. 

After gifts I had to clean up the kitchen from breakfast. 

Then my parents and I hung out and chatted for a while. Eventually it was time to put out the grazing platters and prepping Christmas Dinner. While I took plenty of breaks and spent time with my family I was go go going all day long. I realized before lunch that it was more important to me to spend the time with my family and be present in the moment than to simply post a blog post. 

So however you spent yesterday I hope it was a good day and that you were present to all the joy.