Christmas Shake-Up

As I’m writing this we’re on our way to White Plains to exchange gifts with Jen’s aunts, cousin, and g-ma. The scenery and homes we are passing on the train are so beautiful it’s hard to stay focused on writing…

 The holiday season feels different for everyone. Depending on one’s family tradition, there are certain tastes, smells, and sounds that can remind us of Christmas. For Jen, it has been filled with lots of cooking and consuming delicious home-cooked food and a quiet Christmas morning opening gifts with her family at home.  Conversely, for me, it has always had the feel of a fourteen-hour drive followed by severe cat-allergy attacks, the taste of semi-homemade food (such as instant mash-potatoes), and total chaos and clutter as we open our gifts with family (and random friends of family on occasion). And I say all this fondly because it’s just what Christmas has always been like for me… until this year.

Because I was hired a little late in the year the request-off calendar was void of any valuable days. This meant working the days before and after both Thanksgiving and Christmas (so no time to travel) and spending the holidays here in NYC. It could be worse, I know. I told Jen she could travel, as she has no trouble getting time off, but she was nice enough to stand by her hubby for the holidays. It’s a good thing she did! Who else would eagerly wake me with the news that it was Christmas morning and time to open Christmas presents? We spent the morning happily opening gifts from each other and my family while listening to classic Christmas songs and the crackling fire (on our TV). We spent the rest of the day in our warm apartment relaxing, talking to family, and sipping Jen’s concocted cider and eggnog.

Working the day before and after Christmas made the holiday feel too insignificant; less like Christmas to us and more like a really extravagant day off. But I don’t know if we’ll ever have a more stress free, do-what-we-want kind of Christmas ever again so we’re grateful for the variety. Next year is looking more promising…. to my coworker’s surprise, weeks before this year’s holidays, I requested both Thanksgiving and Christmas 2014 off. I was only approved for Christmas but am not worried about Thanksgiving, considering I have a year to change my boss’s mind.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Cookies

 

At times, Jen makes it easy to visualize her having her own TV show. I can't decide whether it would be more at home on The Food Network or Comedy Central, but it would be entertaining none the less. Maybe she just needs her own network like Oprah. While baking some chocolate/mint Christmas cookies this evening she randomly announced, "they should be hard on the outside and soft on the inside, like an old turd." Her less than appetizing comment did nothing to dissuade me from wanting one of those poo-colored treats. They're delicious.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We spent a lot of time in the wintery, snowy weather this weekend, but not as much as we could have. Our calendar was pretty booked. We decided against going to our church's Christmas Extravaganza on Friday night because of the frigid weather (and taxing work weeks). We had also reserved a Zipcar to drive to a friend's game-playing party on Saturday but had to cancel when the news about the snow storm made our trip to New Jersey seem unsafe.

An old friend of Jen's from Florida is now married, pregnant, and lives just a couple blocks from us. Their holiday party on Saturday was too close to home for excuses so we did make it out to that. We got there and back without getting too cold or wet, but many couldn't make it or were very late due to public transportation-related issues. 'Tis the season for over-indulging, and I did just that at the party. But it's ok, we ate very healthy today and hit the gym to make up for it. Anyway, enjoy a few of the pictures we took this weekend!

Fraser The Tree

Knowing that we would be in NYC this Christmas we wanted to treat ourselves, for the first time, to a real, live tree. We found many tree vendors set up throughout the neighborhood, selling at a rate of about $10 per foot. Considering the height of our ceilings, we weren't going to be satisfied with a budget tree and would need a tree stand on top of that. We gave Lowe's a call to inquire about their trees and the associate that answered said she thought she saw some 6 to 7 ft trees for around thirty dollars. So we bundled up, walked a few blocks to Lowe's, and came home carrying a perfect 7 ft Fraser Fir and stand. The Boy Scouts, Salvation Army, and women's shelter were a little too rich for our blood and should really reconsider their price point. It is a recession!

The tree really makes the apartment look and smell like Christmas. So, as a treat to the readers of Rexrode and The City and as somewhat of a video Christmas card, we filmed ourselves trimming our tree (whose name is Fraser). If you watch closely you might catch Jen dancing.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving for Two (and a Half)

This Thanksgiving was the first, since we've been married, that we didn't spend traveling. As much as we missed seeing family, it sure was nice to relax at home. I know Jen enjoyed being able to prepare such a nice big meal for her hubby (and puppy). The food was so delicious! Enjoy the pictures below of our typical white-people Thanksgiving, as my Hispanic co-worker termed it.