A New York (and New Jersey) Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know we sure did. We missed being with our families, but on the whole I'd say our first Christmas in New York was a success.

Eric was able to leave work pretty early on Christmas Eve, and he used his time to finish up some last-minute shopping. When he got home, we did some shopping for food and wine that we would need for the holiday, then relaxed for a bit. Before we went to church, we exchanged our ornaments. We give each other new Christmas ornaments every year. For the past few years I have gotten him the annual White House Christmas Ornament, and I ordered it again for him this year. My ornament from him this year was a WALL-E ORNAMENT! I freaked out when I saw it. It's so adorable.

Our tree, with so many gifts piled in front of it!
Pardon the goofy-looking lights on the tree. For some reason, our bottom strand of lights burned out this year. One half of it burned out soon after we put it up, and the other half of it bit the dust just this week. It was the strangest thing.

Eric opening his ornament, with some help from Santa Achilles

My Wall-E ornament!

I loved him so much, I kissed him. And Achilles thought I was crazy.

After hanging our ornaments on our tree, we left for church. We went to a 10:30pm service at a Lutheran church we've been going to, about 10 blocks north of us right alongside Central Park. The service was long (an hour and 40 minutes), and the Bishop presided over it. It was very traditional - the Bishop wore his fancy robes, hat and cane, they used incense, and the Bishop even sang the whole Gospel! It was really nice. The music was enjoyable, and I always just love singing Silent Night by candlelight.

When we got home from church we poured some eggnog and warm apple cider and opened all of our gifts. We got some really wonderful things from our family, and from each other. Eric bought me a really nice new bathrobe, some perfume, a necklace I had my eye on at one of the holiday markets, a Wall-E action figure, and the Wall-E DVD. Achilles also got me a lollipop that I've always wanted - one of those big, colorful, swirly ones. I felt spoiled. I got Eric Rock Band 2 (although he knew that one was coming), a Gators golf hat he wanted, and a couple other miscellaneous Gator items. Achilles got a great new dog bed with a blanket over it so he can burrow into it, and a chicken treat in his stocking. It was a good Christmas for all of us!

Eric opening his Rock Band. I made him make a surprised face. Although, he really was very happy to finally be able to play with it!

Sporting my new robe, and showing off my perfume.

My Wall-E action figure! He's modeled after my favorite part of the movie, when Wall-E dances for Eve using a trash can lid as a hat. Awww.

Achilles in his new bed, with half of a Christmas bagel at his feet.

On Christmas morning, we woke up at our leisure and relaxed around the house a bit, enjoying our new toys. Then we made ourselves a nice big breakfast.

Eric setting up his Rock Band drums

Modeling my new robe (and rockin' some snowman slippers)

Achilles burrowed in to his new bed

After breakfast we got dressed and headed to Penn Station, to catch a train to New Jersey. Eric has extended family (his dad's mother, and his brother and family) in New Jersey, so we went to spend the day with them. We had a wonderful time! Everyone was so nice and their house was so homey and festive. We chatted a bit, had hors oeuvre's and wine, ate a delicious dinner (despite the oven breaking!), and really enjoyed ourselves. We even got to see deer out of their den window, which is something we don't see a lot of in the city. It was very nice.

Eric's Grandma L. opening some gifts

Eric's cousin Kevin and Uncle Alan

The ladies of the NJ W. house: Eric's cousin Kimberly, Aunt Lynn, and cousin Kristen

Aunt Lynn and Uncle Alan

Deer passing by the window!

Fun at dinner (me, Aunt Lynn, Kristen, Kimberly, and Grandma L.)

Enjoying our NJ visit

We got back to the city around 11:00pm and basically went right to bed. This morning we slept in, then cleaned up the house and started the cooking (while watching Wall-E), because tonight we had our friends Jose and Karen over for dinner. Eric made lasagna, including sauce from scratch, and we had salad and fresh bread as well, with cookies for dessert. We ate and then played games (Rock Band and Catch Phrase). It was such a nice time!

Eric preparing the lasagna: carefully spreading his homemade sauce

Salad fixin's, bread, and sugar cookies with orange and blue frosting

Our Christmas table - we finally got to light our Christmas candle!

The boys, all fancied up and ready for company

The delicious lasagna

Rock Band time! Eric on the drums, Jose singing, and Karen on guitar (and Achilles is the crowd)

Me rockin' out to some Alanis Morrissette

Eric and I are all business, him on the drums and me on the guitar

And that was our Christmas! I can't believe another Christmas has passed already. Although, it's not quite over for us yet. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving bright and early for a weekend in Cleveland with family. I'll be back Monday night, then Tuesday night our friend Jeff and his girlfriend Jaime are coming into town for New Year's. Then it will only be a couple of days before we make the trip to Florida! So we've got some fun in store for us yet.

Hope your holiday was wonderful!