Holidays = Blogging Fail

Wow, I went a lot longer without blogging than I intended to! We drove up to New Jersey Thursday night and got in pretty late. The one toll going into Delaware was INSANE. One hour to go fifteen miles. Once we hit the toll itself and cruised past the line to the EZ Pass section we hit 75 and did not stop til Jersey. So the stop go stop go, in a standard mind you, was pretty heinous.

I ate a lot of delicious food, saw a ton of family, did the church thing, and got some nice presents too!

Christmas Eve my bestie Sam came over and then we welcomed the chaos of my Dad's 100% Italian family for dinner. About 40 people? Not sure, just a lot of people and my mom and I are the only blondes present (I always felt like such a stepchild at these things... but I love my dad and being able to be Italian by association for a night!). They are always good for a big ego boost too, telling me I look fabulous/married life agrees with me/you lost weight etc. I may not agree with all of it, but it is nice to hear!

*watches her inflated head sail off into the distance*

Naturally inordiante amounts of food were consumed. Pasta with the secret mushroom tomato sauce, rice balls (AMAZING), eggplant, string beans, a million finger foods and snacks, home made cannoli and baklava, cupcakes, chocolate... oh it goes on. My pants feel a little snug at the thought.

Then we went off to midnight mass at ten o'clock. We've called it that for years. Originally our church had a midnight mass, but then they changed it to ten pm for the poor priest who had a seven thirty am mass after being at church til two am! But the name sort of stuck. I was a lector (reader) and it was amazing to have my family, my husband included as well as my aunt and cousin who surprised us, my best friend, and the best friends of our family (Fran, Rob, Chris, and Nicole) all sitting together. I also love reading at church.... and truth be told it is the closest thing to acting/being on a stage/in front of an audience that I have had in ages. :( Miss that.

Christmas morning was fun. Lots of presents were opened and the living room was demolished. I could not believe Ryan woke me up at 6:25 AM saying, "Let's go see what Santa left us!" I just stared at him, m little brother was still asleep!! Haha I am horrible and said no and went back to sleep. He let me stay that way til about 8:30 and then I had to be up because I did actually hear Stefan watching tv in the living rooms.

Presents:


From the top, an amazingly warm blanket made with that pattern from my mom and dad. Eat Pray Love on DVD and a VS gift card from the hubby (totally need that in one month for bras to fit post surgery!!). Santa got me a Kindle, which I AM IN LOVE WITH. We also got a laptop and a Wii for ourselves at Best Buy two weeks ago (with speakers for the tv too) that we wrapped up and acted surprised to open. My mom also discovered Scentsy and got us the USMC one with lots of blocks to burn. We've used it in our room every night so far and I do love how the room smells! I also got these amazing socks from my mom (and a client at work) that are scented and have shea in them and they are just SO cozy and comfy. They even have the little stickies on the bottom so I don't fall on the hardwood floors. Couple all that with some sweaters, a Betty White calendar from my cousin Jill, candles, candy, and some black sketchers snow boots and we had a pretty great Christmas!

Christmas Day brunch (as per tradition) followed at my Aunt Joan's house. We ate too much again, I may have gotten drunk on champagne mixed with pomegranate liquer while Ryan schooled the kids in pool in the basement. We then stopped by Fran and Rob's on the way home so the kids could hang out... and the adults too. It is at this point I realize my husband is quite drunk. I am long sober... but he was not. And had more to drink at Fran and Rob's. Needless to say I was not pleased. Especially since he kept going.

I played rummy with Nicole and tried not to be a nag and ruin our first Christmas, but I was upset at him for his behavior. Especially today when I get an email from my dad of all people saying how some of the things that happened were not acceptable. When I get home today we have to have a "talk" about it that I am not looking forward to.

Sigh.

Couple that with the fact he had a nightmare while drunk and freaked out since he was convinced it was real and would not listen to anything else I said. I was awake watching tv and he was out all of thirty seconds when he started saying 'help' so I woke him up. He was convinced he saw a demon in my room (this is not the first time he has had this sort of dream) and would not listen to a word I said. That in turn freaked me out.

Anyway Sunday we went to church and the snow started. We were going to go see my other two brothers and give them their presents and then stop by my grandparents before heading home but I just got a feeling that we shouldn't. I am glad that feeling struck because that snow fell fast!! It was slow go up until Philidelphia and then got better, but it was still a long and snowy drive back to DC! We then put all our presents away and crashed.

Work has been dead slow. I spent yesterday catching up on blog reading and was going to start this but the mail came at the last minute and stretched out my day. Typical.

There ya go, Christmas.

Pictures to follow when I figure out which laptop to load them on to...