Very Merry Indeed

I am always so sad when Christmas is over. I think half the fun of the holiday is the anticipation and preparation leading up to it. That said, this year was full of wonderful memories that I can look back upon fondly.

This was a busy year in that we had to fit 3 Christmases into a span of 24 hours. This is not a feat I wish to do again anytime soon so I hope we figure something else out for future years.

We started off with having Christmas Eve at my dad's house. It's always such a fun and lively time and is a great way to kick off the celebration. It's awesome to be there with my brothers (includes surrogate brother Joe), sister, and three delightful nieces. The little ones are growing up so fast and they always make the holiday so fun especially when they open their presents and you see their faces light up. After our traditional dinner of ziti, we all congregate in the living room and put on Christmas Vacation (my favorite xmas movie ever). A bonus of the evening is that we get to celebrate the December birthdays of John, Aunt Mo, and me - of which the highlight is Andrea's peppermint red velvet/white cake swirl cake. It's the best holiday dessert ever -- I need the recipe!

My niece Alise (hey that rhymes)

Poppop and Bella

My niece Abby - she's a trip and a half.

December babies! Aunt Mo, me, and Johnny

Get in me belly. Now. 

Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning we spend with my mom. She always makes everything so incredibly special and she's the reason Christmas is my favorite holiday.  Our Christmas is always so calm and relaxing but still very fun. We take our time to get up and after we get the animals fed and a cup of coffee in our hands, we all find our spots on the floor to open presents. Each year, I make us wear something ridiculous - whether its an ugly Christmas sweater, elf or santa hats, or, as was the case this year, hats from Oktoberfest. After we take our sweet time opening presents, mom always makes egg sandwiches and kielbasa (a Polish tradition we've had for years...the kielbasa part - the egg sandwiches are a mom/steffi tradition).

Mom's gorgeous tree and the 8billion presents! 

The bear is always a good sport...

Me and Boarat

Mom got our lil family of three monogrammed stockings! 

We even made the dogs wear hats

Me and Lewis opening up gifts

Usually after we have breakfast, we all cuddle up in the living room and watch A Christmas Story and nap a little bit. This year we had to skip that part and head down to Roanoke to see the Foutz clan. We finally made it down to Jerry's parents house around 6:30 and arrived in the middle of dinner. It's always great to catch up with the family. We opened up some wine, watched some football, and later in the evening opened presents between just the immediate family. All in all it was a lovely time.

Jerry and I both made out like bandits this year but the material things are so inconsequential. I love Christmas because of the time we get to spend with our families and because of the memories the day brings. It was a very merry Christmas indeed.

A Keeper

The other night, Jerry surprised me with a belated anniversary present. I posted a picture below but it is a canvas print of one of our wedding pictures with our vows written across it. I couldn't stop crying and hugging him after I opened it. Not only was it a sweet surprise but the picture is so quintessentially us and the words that we spoke that day about cherishing our friendship and love forever really got me. 

He's a keeper.

Wine, Beer, Bavaria, and B-days

This upcoming Wednesday is my 29th birthday and this year I wanted to do something different to celebrate. As much as I love a good bar crawl - I just wasn't feeling it this year. So Jerry and I decided to celebrate by heading down to Charlottesville. Primary destinations: King Family Vineyard (where we got hitched) and then dinner at the Bavarian Chef in Madison because I've been craving German food ever since we got back in September.

On the way down, we decided to stop off at Prince Michel vineyard right on 29. We've driven past it half a million times but never stopped. It was super cute inside and for 5 bucks, you got to taste 15 (!!) wines. They were all pretty tasty...some more than others. Prince Michel also sold a ton of little gifts and knick knacks... all of which were very cute - thought I might find something for my work's holiday gift exchange but alas there wasn't much under $10 (silly gov't rules). We had a really nice time but we stayed there a little longer than we should have since we still had to head to King Family and then make our 6pm reservation at the restaurant.

So we sped off to King Family, getting there 15 minutes before they closed, eek. Luckily their tasting room was still hopping and they were more than willing to do a tasting for us. They only have 7 featured wines but they are all fantastic. I've never had a bad glass there. We purchased quite a few bottles, signed up for their wine club (thank you husband!), and then headed back to Madison for dinner. Next time we go, I hope we are able to spend more time there...maybe grab a baguette, some cheese and a bottle and just enjoy the beautiful view... really could spend all day there. It just brings back the best memories.

Afterward we made our reservation at the Bavarian Chef...another place we have passed a zillion times on 29 but never stopped at. It's an adorable log-cabin-y type place decked out with Christmas wreaths and lights. Inside it was super cozy and really reminded me of when we were in Bavaria. After having wine all day, we decided to order some German beers and a sausage appetizer. Both of our main courses were super delicious and luckily were big enough so that we could have leftovers tonight. I can't wait to go back there again as the food and ambiance were both incredible.

All in all, while it was low-key, it was a fantastic day just spending time together (thank you husband - you are amazing) and I couldn't ask for more. The best part is that I still have my actual birthday to look forward to where I'm going to dinner with the girls in DC. Can't beat that.

Maybe Not So Awful..

Since I last posted, I've taken it upon myself to try and make more of an attempt at cooking. The past few Sundays I have made some delicious meals with my new best friend, the crock pot.

The first was a pork and sauerkraut stew with homemade mashed potatoes from this site called "Recipes from a German Grandma." I have been craving German food ever since our honeymoon and I must say, it was pretty amazing. Jer and I both had leftovers for lunch all week.

Then last Sunday, I made a good pot roast from a recipe i found on Allrecipes. My mom came over to help us eat it thank heavens because there was a lot of food.

Having made two dishes that don't suck and are actually pretty good, I feel like I may be able to try other things beyond using the slow cooker. But maybe I'm not so awful after all... for now. We'll see what happens next Sunday...