Christmas 2012

Our belated Christmas celebration in Maine this year was wonderful.  There was plenty of snow, we ate a lot of great food, played Quelf for the first (and second) time, checked off another brewery on the Maine Beer Trail, opened gifts and had a really wonderful time enjoying each other’s company.  Even though we had 2 new additions (my sister’s husband and stepson) at our celebration this year and we celebrated on Saturday, it was a standard, traditional family Christmas.

If our family gets much bigger, my parents are going to need to purchase an additional mantle. Still, I love how this looks with all the Christmas decorations and stockings.

A Christmas tradition: the village and train.  Good thing it was set up, my nephew couldn’t get enough of it.

Brian is pretty pleased with these Star Wars mugs that my parents won for him at a Yankee Swap.   My parents also gave us the Fiesta mugs we wanted to match our dishes. 

My nephew was more than willing to help open presents.  I spent much of our visit following him around, playing with blocks, watching my parents (who are adapting to their new role as grandparents incredibly quickly) read to him and getting all the hugs from him that I could.

As per usual, my gifts included a lot of kitchen-related items.  My parents got me 2 different tea pots, one that’s adorable (above) and one that’s bigger and more practical. I’m sure they’ll be getting a lot of use in the coming months.  From my sister and her husband, I also received ramekins and Kim O’Donnel’s new cookbook.  I’m a big fan of The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook and I already tested out a recipe from the new book for dinner last night.  As expected, it was excellent.  My mother-in-law added to my tools with a Beater Blade and a thin slicing disk for my food processor.  I can’t wait to try making vegetable chips.   Brian and I intentionally kept our giving on a tight budget, but I still ended up with new measuring cups, a cookie scoop and an angled spatula. I’m really looking forward to putting all my new toys to good use.  I’m also looking forward to the quizzical looks from my students tomorrow when I answer their questions about what I got for Christmas.  I bet none of them wanted or received measuring cups!