Christmas
So, as usual, Chris and I went to his aunt's house for Christmas Eve to eat dinner and do a white-elephant exchange. Each of his four cousins had at least 3 kids each, so there was a lot of unnecessary shrieking. But it wasn't outright terrible, so at least there's that. I didn't really talk with anyone much this year, but that's okay. We couldn't stay long anyway, since we were due at my parent's house later in the evening. We initially received a Hillary Clinton nutcracker, which was somewhat amusing but offended my inner feminist. We managed to trade for an incomplete "naughty Santa" set instead, so now we have an extra pair of handcuffs and some peppermint-scented oil.
Christmas eve with my parents was somewhat more enjoyable with a relaxing fire to sit in front of and a little bit of hot-tubbing before the evening was out. Christmas day involved tasty orange danish for our traditional breakfast. I got an iPod Classic, some sweet iPod accessories, a board game called Blokus, a wall calendar, some super-cute earrings, a gift-card to Kohl's for $100, and some food stuff. Chris got a couple Wii games (including Sports Restort, which is pretty sweet) and a face-mask that's supposed to keep him warm while riding his bike but mostly makes him look like a ninja.
The Christmas dinner was really the highlight of the day for me. Pumpkin gnocchi, my dad's infamous chevre-rosemary-buttermilk-lemon zest mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pomegranate-feta salad, and asparagus. We didn't have turkey until the very end because my mom and dad underestimated how long it needed to cook. But the meal was still exceptionally delicious.