All I Want For Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Well, it's the day after, but hey- it still counts right?
Seems like everything is getting back to normal around here I think. I slept until just before 8 today, woken up by my phone ringing loudly. The dang thing!!! But it was my other half, seeing if I was ok from the tumultuous night I had the night before!

Let's do the good parts of yesterday first and see if I can mentally skip the bad ones for you all!

First, I was up and at 'em at about 6:45, up before the Peanut!! What?! What was I? A kid on Christmas morning?! No, not quite! I had woken up at about 2, read a book, and never made it back to sleep- so I just stayed awake. I kept telling myself I was just trying to wait for Santa, but Santa came and went, I missed him!

He did bring the Peanut a brand spankin' new Hello Kitty water dispenser! If you have kids, you know they like to use the excuse of "I'm thirsty!!!!" to avoid going to bed. Now, she can have her water right there in her room!

Santa brought her a few books, an outfit for her American Girl doll, and some clothes. Mommy bought her more books, more outfits, and more clothes. She was thrilled to pieces!

She gave me a pair of silver tights and a book, Breaking Dawn. Twilight fans, rejoice! Now my collection is complete!

We kind of putzed around for a few, chatted with my parents and then we were off to Jessica's house to open gifts with the kids. I know how much you all love pictures of my Melo. I love that kid to death I swear- like my own son.. and he loves his Aunty Amy too- everytime he sees me he clings to me like glue.


Here he was taking a bath on Christmas Eve.. before he got THIS!!!! Whoooooo!

What else did Santa have up his sleeve for us??
I did NOT get a memory card reader, or a gift card to get one.. but I did get a brand new shiny purple BIKE!!! (I found my card reader, thats why you are seeing all these flashy new pictures.. lol)

A calender that plays sound.. Red Sox of course.. and the Red Sox twister game! My life is now complete!!! Haha!


I told C how much fun we would have playing that game. No kids allowed, only two players.. TWSS.

Oh wait, you wanted to know what I ate right?? Well, I took the idea from Biz, the expert at making LOVELY dinners and I contributed to the dinner with the family a nice baked shrimp dish. Based upon this recipe. It was SO AWESOME! Doesn't it look good???
There was steak, mashed potatoes, and other Christmas-y food stuffs, but I ended up eating only the shrimp.

I used margarine in place of butter, and gluten free bread crumbs in place of the panko ones, and I think this held up pretty nicely! Everyone loved it.

Bad stuff? Yep, it's rough when the whole family is together for the holidays- and not everyone agrees with the decisions I make in my life, but I have to tell you- my other half and his sister are my two best friends in the whole world and I am forever grateful I have them as number one FRIENDS. And number two FAMILY. And I can tell you that I am HAPPY. Even when my family drives me nuts and I end up hiding in my room at 8 on Christmas day because I need to escape and can't drive away... I still remember who my family is in my heart. I'm not anything like my sisters. I'm not anything like my parents. And my grandmother for all her "I'm just worried" is 83, set in her ways, and loves to give me hell all the time. Its painful to just have to grin and bear it. But I guess, I'll do it for now- knowing that in the end my reward will be my husband coming home to his wife and his daughters.

Well I hope everyone had a lovely lovely Christmas and Santa was good to everyone! No one got coal right?! haha! Enjoy the last final stretch of the year 2009!