I'm a little sad to say that this Christmas has been exhausting!
Monday morning, I headed to work in DC. My office let us out at 4:00 and I headed over to my retail job for an evening shift. The Pilot and I were driving to New Jersey so we planned on leaving DC around 8:00 to avoid traffic.
Luckily we didn't hit any and made it in to Jersey by 11pm. I was absolutely exhausted from working both jobs that day and went straight to bed.
Tuesday was Christmas Eve and I woke up and headed off to get my nails done. I spent the afternoon lounging around my mom's house drinking hot chocolate and watching Love Actually with The Pilot before getting ready for our Noche Buena festivities.
Noche Buena is a Latin tradition. We cook roast pork, black beans and rice, yucca and lots ofother yummy tthings. Then we open presents and eat dessert.
This year was no exception. We had an absolutely wonderful night. My sister, who had found out that afternoon that the engine on her car had died'got an exceptional surprise when my mom asked her to go grab something from the garage and she opened the door to a new car, complete with a big, red bow tied to the window.
When everyone else left we head to Midnight Mass where, somewhere around the homily, I start to struggle with keeping my eyes open.
After Mass, we headed to bed and woke up earlier than I would have liked to on Christmas to head upstairs and open presents from Santa.
I didn't ask for much this year and I really didn't need much but I was happy with the fun and exciting gifts I got! The Pilot had been asking for new clothes for the last few Christmases so I took care of that and raided Gap, Banana Republic and J Crew to get him some nice clothes and he was really happy.
After opening presents, my mom strayed from her normal tradition of making cinnamon rolls and made this delicious Panettone French toast recipe.
After breakfast, we had some rushing to do to get dessert in the oven and get dressed before heading over to The Pilot's parents house, which is conveniently just a mile down the road.
We exchanged Christmas gifts with his family (I picked up this year's White House Christmas Ornament for everyone and it was a huge success and then headed to his uncle's house for an early Christmas dinner.
The Pilot left early Thursday for work and my sister and I headed up to northern NJ for brunch at our sister Zuzy's house. Zuzy just moved back to the East Coast from San Francisco and it was so great to get to see her and her family for the holidays.
I spent the weekend in Texas visiting my family there, before heading back to DC on Tuesday to ring in the New Year with The Pilot.
We had a perfect New Year's. Dinner out, two bottles of wine and watching the ball drop from our living room couch. I loved it. This is a big year for us and I was happy we were able to ring it in together!
Monday morning, I headed to work in DC. My office let us out at 4:00 and I headed over to my retail job for an evening shift. The Pilot and I were driving to New Jersey so we planned on leaving DC around 8:00 to avoid traffic.
Luckily we didn't hit any and made it in to Jersey by 11pm. I was absolutely exhausted from working both jobs that day and went straight to bed.
Tuesday was Christmas Eve and I woke up and headed off to get my nails done. I spent the afternoon lounging around my mom's house drinking hot chocolate and watching Love Actually with The Pilot before getting ready for our Noche Buena festivities.
Noche Buena is a Latin tradition. We cook roast pork, black beans and rice, yucca and lots ofother yummy tthings. Then we open presents and eat dessert.
This year was no exception. We had an absolutely wonderful night. My sister, who had found out that afternoon that the engine on her car had died'got an exceptional surprise when my mom asked her to go grab something from the garage and she opened the door to a new car, complete with a big, red bow tied to the window.
When everyone else left we head to Midnight Mass where, somewhere around the homily, I start to struggle with keeping my eyes open.
After Mass, we headed to bed and woke up earlier than I would have liked to on Christmas to head upstairs and open presents from Santa.
I didn't ask for much this year and I really didn't need much but I was happy with the fun and exciting gifts I got! The Pilot had been asking for new clothes for the last few Christmases so I took care of that and raided Gap, Banana Republic and J Crew to get him some nice clothes and he was really happy.
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| A sampling of this year's gifts! |
After opening presents, my mom strayed from her normal tradition of making cinnamon rolls and made this delicious Panettone French toast recipe.
After breakfast, we had some rushing to do to get dessert in the oven and get dressed before heading over to The Pilot's parents house, which is conveniently just a mile down the road.
We exchanged Christmas gifts with his family (I picked up this year's White House Christmas Ornament for everyone and it was a huge success and then headed to his uncle's house for an early Christmas dinner.
The Pilot left early Thursday for work and my sister and I headed up to northern NJ for brunch at our sister Zuzy's house. Zuzy just moved back to the East Coast from San Francisco and it was so great to get to see her and her family for the holidays.
I spent the weekend in Texas visiting my family there, before heading back to DC on Tuesday to ring in the New Year with The Pilot.
We had a perfect New Year's. Dinner out, two bottles of wine and watching the ball drop from our living room couch. I loved it. This is a big year for us and I was happy we were able to ring it in together!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
Here's to 2014!
I love that giraffe mug! Happy holidays!!
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