Christmas 2012

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas....

Well, I wasn't dreaming of that, but I thought that was what

we were having, when I woke up, looked out the window and saw rain.

Which was kind of a bummer, because the weather channel had claimed

that we could have a white Christmas, which I seriously doubted.

O ye of little faith!

A couple hours later, I looked out the window and did a double take!

Could it be? It didn't quite look like rain anymore, it looked softer and slower.

So I decided to go outside and do a little investigating. [As well as take out the trash.]

Yep, it was a light snow. 

Which got my hair all wet...hair that I had straightened just a couple hours earlier.

Smart, real smart!

So I figured that was the extent of our White Christmas.

A few flakes that melted on impact.

But then....

It kept on going....and it didn't melt!

And it continued to snow for a couple hours.

So even though we were hosting Christmas dinner at our place

and still had a bunch of stuff to do, we couldn't pass up this opportunity

to go play in the Christmas snow! 

[And take a bunch of pictures of this winter wonderland!]

Across the street from our apartment is a small field,

[which leads to Texas Instruments]

so my sister Trisha and I walked over there since we figured

there would be more snow, as well as some pretty scenery.

We ended up not being the only ones with this idea.

There was a group of 3 girls also walking around in the field, taking pictures.

They asked us to take a picture of them on this bridge.

They also took one of us, but I obviously wasn't ready for the photo, 

so I cropped myself out.

We had a pretend snowball fight and I made a mini snowman!

This was the first snowman I had made in YEARS!!!

[Well, that was actually made out of snow,  that is!]

I brought it home and put it out on the balcony.

Sadly it is now just a puddle. :(

When we got back, we discovered we were gone for almost an hour!

So we had some catching up to do to get Christmas dinner ready.

We were hosting a dinner for 14 people.

Yes, we somehow managed to comfortably fit that many people 

in our small apartment! [The folding table and chairs I bought earlier 

this month was a big help!] It seemed more spacious and comfortable

than Thanksgiving at my mom's place...and there were only 9 people then!

The reason why I volunteered to host Christmas dinner was because if I didn't,

we'd be having hamburgers and/or sandwiches for dinner!!!

Umm...no, no, no, NO! 

It's bad enough we hardly do any of the Christmas traditions I grew up with 

anymore, but 

you're not taking a nice dinner away from me, too!

Still, I didn't want to spend half of my Christmas in the kitchen,

so I came up with a relatively simple menu.

[Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the food.]

Pot Roast

I borrowed a crock pot because we thought we would two roasts

to have enough for everybody. [But one might have been enough, 

because we did have quite a bit of leftovers...not that I'm complaining though!]

Potatoes, Baby Carrots, Onions

Cooked in the crock pot with the meat.

Apparently this was the part of the meal my mom was most looking forward to.

Homemade rolls

I made the dough the night before. So all I had to do today was roll the dough out

like a pizza crust, cut it up, roll them up, let them rise and stick them in the oven,

just minutes before we were about to eat so they'd be hot and fresh!

Homemade mashed potatoes

This was the most time consuming dish. Peeling and cutting the potatoes,

waiting for the potatoes to cook through, mash them up, add milk & seasoning.

I also had to split the potatoes to make one batch using almond milk & non-dairy 

buttery spread for the vegans. [Who made tofurkey for their meal.]

Corn and mixed veggies

Stick them in a container, put it in the microwave...BAM! Done!

For dessert:

Pumpkin pie, apple pie and an assortment of cookies

Everyone was still so full from dinner, that people just took some home

or didn't have anything at all.

All went well with dinner, so mission accomplished!

Now on to presents!!!

This year we did Secret Santa again.

Although it wasn't much of a secret for me, since I was the one

who told everyone who they had to get a gift for.

My sister, Katrina was my Secret Santa.

She decided to make me homesick and got me a cool wall hanging of

San Francisco and a journal/notebook featuring San Francisco sights.

Of course, I didn't just buy presents for my Secret Santa.

I got a little something for just about everybody.

[And for those I didn't, it was only because I never came across something for them.]

 Of course, I had to get Katrina something!

After Secret Santa we played the White Elephant game.

[Which someone apparently took quite literally!]

Everyone had opened a present, but only one person 'stole' a present,

which wasn't too fun or exciting. So we had one more round.

You could keep what you had, take from someone else, or try your

luck on the extra mystery gift.

This time around there was more stealing involved.

I ended up with food storage containers, which was good,

because they're just like the ones we already have.

Someone tried their luck with the extra mystery gift and kept it,

making a bottle of Beano the extra gift! Ha-ha-ha!

The fun pretty much stopped there, because people had to get home,

since they had to be at work early the next morning.

All in all, even though it wasn't my ideal way to celebrate Christmas.

[The true reason for the season, sadly wasn't the main focus of the day.]

It all went much better than I expected.