Phew! We made it through Christmas! It was busy and fun and filled with lots of great family time.
We spend Christmas Eve with my family and enjoy a traditional Eastern European meatless meal of breaded fish, mashed potatoes, and creamed peas. We have this meal once a year and we all find ourselves craving it!
We also share the traditional Polish Christmas wafer, called oplatek, before the meal. NPR recently did an article about these and I was so happy to read about how this tradition carries on beyond just our home (article here).
My mom also found Jeffrey the most adorable reindeer cake from Michael Angelo’s Bakery. Jeffrey has been nuts for watching the original “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” this year, so this cake was the perfect treat for him!
We went to Mass at St. Basil the Great, which hands-down has one of the best music ministry programs around! Then it was home to get Jeffrey in bed and prepare for Santa’s arrival.
One of the things Jeffrey asked Santa for this year was a hippopotamus (gotta love that song)! So, since Santa can make all wishes come true, Jeffrey got his hippo in the form of our dog Tobey dressed as a hippo.
This was by far my favorite Christmas present for Jeffrey, even though Tobey was less than thrilled with his situation.
Jeffrey’s big gift this year was a Step 2 Lifestyle Deluxe Kitchen. Jeffrey has already been busy making “cookie coffee,” pizza, and tacos for us in his new kitchen. I love toys that encourage imaginative play and can grow with Jeffrey for years to come. This definitely fits that bill!
Christmas afternoon, we had dinner and more presents at Matthew’s dad’s house. My favorite part of the day was seeing how Jeffrey loves playing with his cousins. He’s finally gotten old enough to join in on the fun with them. And while I’m sure as the youngest (and the only boy) he has some torture coming his way, his cousins are genuinely sweet and wonderful with him!
It was a fabulous Christmas! My heart is full from all the wonderful memories we made!
And now it’s off to figure out where to put all the new stuff and to figure out our agenda for the week, since Matthew took this week off between the holidays! How was your holiday weekend?
