Christmas in Cleveland

This past weekend I left Eric and Achilles at home for a bachelors' weekend in New York, while I went to visit family in Cleveland. As always, it was wonderful to see everyone!

I left early Saturday morning to catch my 9:00a.m. flight, which ended up being delayed about an hour and a half due to a "maintenance issue." After sitting on the plane for over an hour, they finally moved us to a new plane. Then we had to wait another half hour before we could finally take off. Ugh. The worst part of the whole thing was that I missed the annual shrimp, cheese and crackers lunch! Of course they saved a plate for me, but I had to eat it by myself. Boo on plane delays.

After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, catching up, and just enjoying each other.

My grandfather's Christmas tree

Cousin Molly showing Gramps pictures from her recent trip to Budapest. She spent Christmas there, visiting her brother Jacob and his new wife, Zita.

Watching sports and dozing off in front of the TV is a great pastime of ours. Here, my stepdad Gary and cousin Adam demonstrate the proper technique.

Uncle Peter, Uncle Mark and Molly tackling the biggest crossword puzzle I've ever seen.

That evening we had our big Christmas dinner, which is always so delicious. We have some fine chefs in our family! This year's feast included ham, potato casserole, mixed vegetables, corn, and the always popular pretzel Jell-O salad. And of course, there was dessert as far as they eye could see: peanut clusters, peanut butter cups, chocolate-covered pretzels, and Lebkuchen, to name a few. Mmm, mmm. We certainly never go hungry at these gatherings!

The table set for our Christmas feast

After dinner, as is the tradition, everyone pops those gold and silver poppers you can see on the table in the picture above and enjoys the goodies inside. Said goodies usually include a paper crown (which ultimately leads to the family photo of everyone wearing their crowns), a toy and a joke. We share the jokes with each other, play with our toys, and then retire to the living room to take our group shot.

My mom playing with her new Whoopee Cushion

Our patriarch enjoying the merriment

The girls in crowns

Family shot!
Top row: Gary, Uncle Peter, Uncle Mark, Adam.
On the couch: Aunt Rachel, me, Gramps, Heather, Molly, my mom (on the chair)
And last but not least, on the floor: Sarah!

Another great tradition in my family is gathering around the piano to sing Christmas carols. This takes place frequently over the course of the weekend, and after our crown picture we spent some more time singing Christmas hymns together.

Uncle Peter and Molly playing the piano while Heather, Adam, Uncle Mark and my mom sing

Uncle Peter was the pianist for our hymn sing

Gramps singing along

Heather and me caroling

After the hymn sing it was time for presents. Most gifts go to our Gramps, although Molly, Heather and I always exchange gifts, plus this year Heather and I brought our gifts for our mother and she brought gifts for us since we didn't get to see her on Christmas. We got some wonderful things! Molly brought me a beautiful necklace from Hungary, and my mom brought a really cute lobster Christmas ornament for Eric and me. She also brought Christmas toe socks for all the girls!

Gramps opening an ornament that his new granddaughter-in-law, Zita, made for him

Toe socks! From left to right: Molly, Sarah, Heather and me.
The funny part was that as my mom took this picture she said, "smile, toes!" and we all wiggled our toes!

After the festivities wound down, we watched Wall-E (which I brought, of course), and by the time it was over we all crashed and went right to bed. We woke up early on Sunday to attend church together. I always love going back to that church. This year was nice because the regular pastor was on vacation, and the pastor they called to fill in had been the pastor there when I was little. His wife had also been our choir teacher. It was so nice to see them again.

Beautiful Christmas church

Molly, Heather and me all dressed up

After church, the visit began to come to a close. Uncle Peter was first to leave, then my mom and Gary left in the mid-afternoon. Aunt Rachel, Uncle Mark, Adam and Sarah left after dinner, and then it was just the girls left. I went out that night with my friend Megan, which is always so much fun. She treated me to dessert and drinks at Cheesecake Factory, and we had a great time catching up. She's talking about visiting me in NYC this summer, which will be a blast! She's a great friend.

Monday morning Heather had to leave, then Molly and I did some shopping and had lunch with Gramps before I had to head to the airport myself. This time I got home with no delays (other than a long bus ride from the airport to Manhattan). My boys met me at Port Authority to escort me home, and that was a happy reunion.

So, another Christmas come and gone! The celebration continues on for us, however. Tonight our friend Jeff and his girlfriend Jaime are coming in from D.C. to spend New Year's with us, and on Saturday we'll be leaving for our Florida trip. So the fun is not over yet!