Ahhh I am so behind on getting this blog updated, but today is ONLY January 17th, 3 weeks after Christmas, and while we have a very stormy Martin Luther King day today, and no school, and both kids are sleeping, I am trying to get caught up because this is my digital scrapbook. It also makes me realize that though I have days that I feel VERY UNACCOMPLISHED, I am reminded that I do place a lot of effort on activities and fun for Leeza (and Sean) and it makes me feel less unproductive. :)
We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was sad too, because it was our first Christmas without Nana, Joe's mom. She passed away in September of this year. However, her grandkids really stepped it up to make sure her traditions were honored. Jillian made the calarami, and zaplas, and smelts on Christmas Eve, and Sean learned this year to make Papa's famous Christmas cookies. He spent many days at Papa's rolling dough and making cookies. Leeza and Joey and I went over to Papa's for a couple days too and learned how. Sean taught me..I had never made "homemade cookies" where you roll the dough out, use cookie cutters, and decorate cookies before. It was actually really fun, and very special to have Sean so invested in helping Papa, as he hurt is back and was unable to make them. Leeza even got in on the action by decorating them with sprinkles. :) I am really really proud the way my children (and of course my amazing husband) stepped up and helped Papa thru his first Christmas in 56+ years without his wife and how we all came together. That's what Christmas is all about--that is dressing Leeza up in gay apparel and celebrating Christ's birth! :)
I love decking the halls and donning gay apparel. I have several Christmas shirts and a Christmas sweater myself, but of course, the queen of gay apparel is Ms. Leeza Grace herself. LOVE LOVE LOVE dressing her up...and with her attitude, I totally deserve the joy that I get in dressing her up. That is the one thing she never fights me on...she loves to look cute and tells me "thanks for buying me SO MUCH FUN CLOTHES MOMMY". The gay apparel brigage begins the day after Thanksgiving and continues until Dec 25th. Last year, I went NUTS on ebay and got too many things-but all homemade items at great prices. I did buy a couple things this year, but I controlled myself much better and she was able to wear almost everything from last year too!!! She spread so much Christmas cheer everywhere we went. :)
Christmas Eve, we went to our church's family service. It was nice, and we got our picture taken by the tree, as is tradition.:)
Christmas eve was awesome. Jillian made Nana's calamari (squid) a few weeks prior, and froze it, and I had it in the crockpot all day. It's Nana's tradition and Jillian has been her apprentice for the last couple of years. After church, Papa and Paul came over and Jillian and Papa coooked the zaplas (fried dough-another Italian tradition). It did Papa good to be involved. :)
Another Nana tradition is "smelts". I have never really cared for them, but I tried one. They weren't bad! Paul proudly mixed them in the flour while Jilly Bean "fried em up".
Joey made his killer salad!
The table was beautiful. I used my mom's china. Whoa...first Thanksgiving, now Christmas.
The stockings were hung, near the chimney with care...
In hopes that St. Nicholas..soon would be there...
Of course, Leeza is the last kid up on Christmas morning..around 9:30. She walked out and said "Mommy...WHO LEFT ALL THESE TOYS?" I said "Santa Claus came" to which she responded "Who are they for?" She cracks me up. Leeza wanted "every princess toy there is" and I think she got that. She also got a CARS ramp that she loves just as much, and a dollhouse. The talking Cinderella vanity mirror is a HOOT! We had a very nice Christmas day, cooking, playing with new toys, and chilling out. I felt very blessed indeed. :)
Sean was a trooper playing princess with Leeza.
Behold my homemade cobbler.....and Leeza in her new princess Snuggie and Sean is in his Snuggie of yesteryear....awwwww...they match!
And my favorite picture. This was Leeza at Christmas dinner. She fell asleep, bread in hand. All in all, a very very good day, indeed.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment