Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. I hope you all had wonderful days with your families, that you made away with some good "loot," and that you are nowhere near as stuffed as I am!

Christmas Eve, we drove out to Corona to have Christmas dinner with my uncle and extended family. We had our traditional Italian sausage and homemade pizza. We headed back in the late afternoon and went to "Midnight Mass" at 10:30 p.m.

My sis, mom, step-dad, and PJ spent the night at our place. We woke up in the morning, ate breakfast (thanks, A, for the recipe), and then opened presents. We made away with some great stuff, including a new garage door from my mom and Doug, help remodeling the guest bathroom from Josh's folks, and a treadmill from my dad. (Pictures of the home improvements to come!)

We had fourteen people over for Christmas dinner, including my grandparents, mom, step-dad, dad, sis, PJ, and a couple family friends. We had to pull out our dining room table into the living room (good thing we have not furnished that room yet!), add two leaves, and set up a smaller table in the dining room to accommodate everyone!

Our living room with our dining room table, extended with two leaves.

A close-up of the place setting.

The beautiful flower arrangement my uncle sent.

My grandparents, and Ella in the background.

For dinner, we served prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, and rolls. It was the first holiday meal I cooked, and I was a little nervous, but it turned out really well. However, with all that was going on, I forgot to take pictures (dammit).

Also, it's a family tradition to have crackers at each table. Inside each cracker, there are paper crowns, and most of our family pictures through the years have us in these ridiculous hats.

Gathered 'round the table.

The crackers also include little toys. There were little cars and a couple people opened their crackers to find mini squirt guns! (My mom and grandma had a little too much fun with the squirt guns!)

My mom and Doug were nice enough to help clean up. Jackie and her family came over and had dessert with us.

Homemade apple pie, pumpkin pie with walnut crust, and pumpkin ginger cheesecake.

Phew. It was a wonderful, wonderful Christmas filled with our wonderful (albeit slightly crazy) family, food, wine, and lots of laughing. Good times.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays, too! I think I am going to go take a nap!