Magical Christmas (2011)

  

This year Christmas Eve was on a Saturday and Christmas Day on a Sunday. It started off not so good, due to dad being in his usual "Grinch"-like mood (since his mother died on Christmas Eve years ago, when he was a young child), however Christmas Eve and Christmas Day proved to be a success!

Mom was off this season, when in comparison to last year, so she brought the family together. We went to Sunday mass on Christmas Day at noon (St. Laurence Catholic Church) and ate together, as a family, at Russo's New York Pizzeria. There weren't many places open Christmas Day and all of us (excluding dad) were grateful to be eating there versus the jam-packed Denny's. It was overall a great Christmas Day!

Luckily, I finally got to see Marc-Antony and his family for the holiday season on Christmas Day! I headed over to his place around 5pm, after I showered and washed my hair. Marc-Antony's dad made delicious stuffed poblano peppers with a crispy crust created by frying egg whites, I believe. It was so delicious that I definitely had to have seconds! Then, we opened presents. Marc-Antony's mom bought his dad a personalized iPad along with a screen protector. Jee-whiz! Also, this year Marc-Antony's family had a real Christmas tree with gifts underneath it--'twas quite magical.

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Gift from mom: $100 {cash}


Gifts from Marc-Antony:

• Christmas card from Papyrus {had a partridge tree on front + gold/silver theme}
• Swiss Army laptop bag with adjustable shoulder strap

Gifts from Marc-Antony's parents:

• $100 {cash}
• Kelly-green purse-sized wallet with a brown stitch front from Macy's
• Jones New York silver-tone triple circle-drop earrings from Macy's {retail: $20}
• Éccolo lined journal in red with an embossed heart front - from the "World Traveler" collection
• Misfit Doll {"Dolly for Sue," as she is named in the TV-special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer} from the Build-A-Bear Workshop
• Tabasco hot sauce purée 

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Best moments of this Christmas:

1. Being blessed with a wonderful home, family, love love, good food, life, etc.
2. Having Christmas be magical, in the end, even though it wasn't very joyous and jolly before Christmas Eve
3. Being able to spend the holidays with loved ones
4. Getting $200 {cash} this Christmas
5. Having a great Christmas even though I didn't have a job or very much money to spend
6. Seeing the smiles on Marc-Antony and his family's faces when I gave them the framed photograph of them and a framed photograph of Marc-Antony's dad in the Snuggie from last Christmas
7. All the sweet treats--cheesecake bites, Godiva chocolate pieces, and oven-baked brownies
8. The holiday tunes on Houston's Sunny 99.1FM
9. Being included in Bibi Magazine's holiday mass-email newsletter {along with Marc-Antony, even though they didn't include the hyphen in his first name}