Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Joy of Christmas

And so ends another Christmas season. I was feeling good by Christmas Eve night and when Branden got home from work, we enjoyed a dinner of chicken roulade stuffed with chorizo, red pepper, garlic, and sheep's cheese. For those of you who have never had the amazing wonder that is sheep's cheese, you are missing out! It tastes nothing like goat's cheese (which is good because I loath goat's cheese) and has no gamey flavor at all. It reminds me of a soft parmesan. Anyhoo, with a side of brussel sprouts and honey carrots, we were happy campers. Our house was empty, as all of our housemates went to be with their families, so we took full advantage of the lone house and left our empty coco mugs on the coffee table in the living room over night! (we're so bad!!!)

Christmas morning was great. We slept in and relished in the fact that we had a morning and an entire day to be together. Branden had been working from Wed-Sat so we were very much missing each other by Christmas. There was no tree, no presents to be opened, and no family to laugh with, but it oddly was a wonderful Christmas morning. I suppose it just put the true meaning of Christmas into perspective as we were very grateful that we had each other and that God had taken care of us in this new adventure in Ireland. We had already received a box of goodies from Branden's parents, Chrissy, my sis & bro-in-law,  the laptop, and another box from my parents is still on the way, but the entire week, we had solely been looking forward to just being together for Christmas.

So we took our time, Branden made his famous scrambled eggs, and we just enjoyed every moment we had. At 2:00pm, we headed to our friend's house for Christmas lunch/dinner. We feasted on tons of delicious food, played lots of fun games, and laughed like loons. We had an epic game of pictionary where we drew with dry erase markers on the tiled floor and divided the teams by tipping the dining room table on it's side to block and prevent peeking. It was fabulous!

When we got home, we were able to catch my parents on Skype before they headed over to my grandparent's house for their Christmas dinner. We then Skype'd Branden's parents and got to see his brother too. Then we finally Skype'd my sis and bro-in-law, where our oldest nephew showed us some of his new treasures and the little one entertained us due to his gingerbread sugar high. It was great to finish off Christmas day with family. Even though we couldn't be with them, it was still nice to see their faces and have them be part of our first Irish Christmas.

Yesterday, I felt as if my cold was coming back. I don't think it was, but I think all the fun, chatting, and laughing from Christmas day maybe was a bit much from my previous week of laying low and resting a lot. We took it easy all day, watching TV movies, snuggling under the blankets, and looking at random stuff on Pinterest. I feel better today, I just have lots of 'leftovers' floating around my upper body. Today we will continue to take it easy with our highlight being a run to the store for groceries. Branden goes back to work tomorrow so we are enjoying the rest of our time together while it lasts.

Did everyone else have a lovely Christmas?

14 comments:

  1. Sounds like a perfect lovers holiday! Good for you! Glad you are feeling a little better. Stay down today and maybe you'll be all better by tomorrow. :)

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  2. oh btw on Friday I'm posting a blurb for your blog. :)

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  3. Sounds like it was fun, peaceful & romantic--it doesn't get much better than that!

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  4. I'm so glad you got well just in time for Christmas. And BTW- We didn't have a tree this year either. So don't feel like you were the Lone Ranger where that's concerned.

    Playing Pictionary on the floor? That's a new one and definitely only for you young ones.

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  5. Melynda, thanks, I'm staying low so I think I'll shake this soon! Thanks also for the blurb! Can't wait to see it! :)

    Lola, you had screwdrivers for Christmas by the looks of your pictures so I can't imagine it being that bad...and looks like there was lots of love ;)

    Fishducky, agreed! I don't think there is a better combo!

    Boomer, yes it was great to be feeling well for Christmas! I can't imagine how you would do a tree with your pack so yay for us non-tree-ers! ;)
    Oh and we had some spry parents of 5 kids in their 40's playing on the floor along with us!

    Elisa, I'm glad yours was great! I'll get to stop in tomorrow and read all that I've missed ;)

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  6. I did have a nice Christmas, despite being alone (which isn't so bad since I'm Jewish). I'm actually proud of myself for not once feeling lonely...or alone for that matter!
    Your Christmas sounds perfect and fitting for you and your Branden.

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  7. Glad you had a good one, love. I had my dad and brothers and their families over and cooked them all a massive turkey dinner and drank a bottle of Christmas Ale that went out of date in 1998. Great day.

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  8. This was my last Christmas. I'm done.

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  9. All is calm....all is bright. Sounds like you had a peaceful and fun Christmas. You did it right. Blessings.

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  10. sometimes the simplest of things are the most meaningful!

    I'm quite jealous you've been searching around on Pintrest lately...'cause I sure haven't *sigh* I MUST catch up this next week, for sure. I'm sure there are SO many new pins that I'm missing!

    Isn't Skype such a wonderful invention?!?! I know that when I start to miss my mom, I text her and make her get on skpye so I can see her!

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  11. It sounds like you guys had a wonderful Christmas! We were all still under the weather, but feeling good enough to do all the family rounds and activities. Both my better half and I were ready to pass out by the time we dragged our sorry selves back home. But, we welcomed Baby Jesus, opened presents and ate too much...so I'd say it was a success. Didn't sleep very much though...I'm asking Santa for that next year. Can't believe I forgot to ask... Glad to hear you're feeling better!

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  12. Glad you felt good enough to enjoy your first Christmas in Ireland! It sounded perfect!

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  13. Glad that you had a simple but happy Christmas Maggie. We had a family get-together on Christmas Day which I always enjoy, with our daughter and her two nearly-adult children, and one son from a distance. Sadly our other son couldn't make it - Dave.

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Does this straitjacket make my butt look big?