our first christmas

well, our first Christmas was quite eventful. We started the festivities by cooking a Christmas dinner (ham and all) for Jon's grandma and grandpa, and his mom and her boyfriend. Everything went off without a hitch although we now have a new appreciation for all the hard works our mom have to go through to prepare a meal for a large group of people. Cooking for two is definitely easier. Jon's mom, among other things, got us this inflatable snowman, with fiber optics, motion sensors and a recordable voice option. We've been having fun recording weird messages for people who drop by the house. The cats aren't quite sure what to think of it yet.

We spent the night at my parent's house on Christmas eve. Jon and my mom and sisters painted Christmas cookies together using food coloring.

Jon, ever the animal lover, was able to pile two out of three of my family's cats into our bed for the night to sleep with us. We've been debating whether or not we should adopt another kitty but are leaning away from it. At one point I heard Jon talking to the cat, Isabella, asking her to "blink twice if you want to come and live with us." Fortunately for me, she only blinked once.

Our family had the traditional breakfast pizza (crescent rolls, eggs, sausage, cheese and peppers) for breakfast while we opened presents. Afterward, we headed over to my grandparent's house for the big extended family get together...it was a nice relaxing day with lots of good food.

We got some really cool gifts this year...slippers for Jon, a carbon monoxide detector for the house, some cooking utensils, a Japan guide book, pinking shears, target gift cards, and some cookbooks. Jon gave me a paper shredder (I've been wanting one of these for quite a while!). And I gave him the Yale Book of Quotations...he's been leaving people with words of wisdom from the book as they leave our house...some of them are pretty funny.