A Holiday Whirlwind

So, lets recap Christmas.

Honestly, this Christmas was pretty easy.. Here are our yearly celebrations.

-The First Friday: Work Christmas Party

-The Second Friday: Denise's Work Christmas Party

-The Saturday before Christmas: Vickers Family

-Sometime before Christmas: Anna and Denise Christmas 

-Sometime before Christmas: Colleen and Denise Christmas

-December 23: Borges Family Christmas (my moms family...)

-December 24 Lunch: Dias and Farpella (not that any of us girls are Farpella's anymore, but whatever! :) ) Family Christmas

-December 24 Dinner: Farpella Family Christmas

-December 24 Dessert: Sister Christmas

-December 25: Gaston Family Christmas

-December 25: Our Family Christmas

-December 26: Ricky Vickers Christmas

We survived ALL OF THAT. Denise and I always go to each others Christmas parties because one she is my husband when Bryan is gigging and C she knows everyone and entertains me like no one else. 

This Christmas was a good one, for the most part. I couldn't care less about gifts. I am just SO happy that I got to spend time with my family. The biggest bummer was that I got ridiculously sick this holiday season and doing all of this took a lot out of me. 

Christmas Eve was so fun because I spent the entire day with my sisters, their husbands and Alison's kids. And the entire day was dedicated to my side of the family and it went off without a hitch! I was so bummed that Bryan had to work and miss my Mom's Christmas lunch, but he ended up timing his work lunch hour with us so we was there for lunch, and by the time he was off work we had cleaned everything up, so he was there for presents too! I was so, so thankful. 

On Christmas Day, we get a call very early in the morning from Bryan's mom and we head over there in our pajamas and smudged make-up.... That last make may just be me though. :) Anyways, we open gifts and eat breakfast and hang out. It is one of my favorite times. The Gaston family usually ends up getting our holiday-time leftovers throughout the year, so Bryan and I put no restriction on how much we are there on Christmas Day. We usually end up staying for the better part of the day, and this Christmas was no exception. I was still pretty sick, so we left so I could rest and take a shower, but we went back over there and played games and lounged pretty much the entire rest of the day. It was great. It is such a relaxing Christmas tradition. 

Speaking of gifts, my house made out like a bandit! When asked, I said I wanted items for the house. Serving platters, bathroom stuff, stand mixer, cloth napkins, etc. My family knows me so well. Everything they picked out was perfect! I felt so loved and blessed. The biggest surprise that my Mother-in-law (who is amazing and I love her) remembered from some random conversation years ago, how I wanted the Anne of Green Gables movies and she got them for me. Such a simple gift, a DVD is, but it almost brought tears to my eyes because of how thoughtful it was! Those movies are a childhood favorite and bring so many memories of my sisters to mind. I was touched.

I hope that the gifts Bryan and I picked out for everyone made them feel as loved as we did!

**PS. I wrote this in 2011 and backdated it, which is why I sound so happy. I was seriously sick and my draft recap was really cranky sounding. Note to self: Do not blog when dying.