Holiday recap!

Although I'm a bit late here is a quick recap of our Christmas and New Years!  As I usually like to do, let's do a picture story!

Christmas Eve I cooked an awesome chicken dinner (with onion & ale sauce) courtesy of Cook's Illustrated and mashed potatoes.  I also cleaned up after Shila as she terrorized her gifts underneath the tree while we were out of the house.  Tch, tch, Shila!  She had a lot of fun though!  Look at the mess she made!  Just like a kid.  :)

Christmas morning I took my Jewish husband to Catholic Mass and then my Jewish husband took his Catholic wife to a local Jewish deli where every patron gets a pickle.  Apparently it's a Jewish thing.  :)

We came home to play with the dogs a little before opening presents.

The first couple of presents weren't quite winners (we're pretty honest with each other).  The golf shoes were one size smaller than my feet and the golf shirt was a bit too bright for my taste.  BUT...before you think I'm an ungrateful goat...

Look at this!!  I got golf clubs and a bag!!  My hubby did really really really good!  Fabulous in fact!  I was so happy!  I've already used them twice and love them.  Didn't know I was in to golf?  Nor did I.  I played as a young kid taking many many lessons.  Took a 20 year break and am now back in to it.  I actually kind of enjoy it!  Still not used to being called a golf enthusiast though.  :)

Now the funniest part of Christmas Day was Rich opening his present (which by the way I hid in the house and made him hunt for).

Yes, lo and behold we both unknowingly got each other golf bags!  Now he already has a nice set of clubs so I didn't get him a full set.  Just a bag but how about that coincidence? 

He really liked his bag.  Can you tell?

But...he didn't like the Cubs golf towel I got him.  Oops.  Or the two shirts.  Oops.  :)  Did I mention that we're honest with each other? 

He did like the sweater though!  Phew!  :)

Then it was the dogs' turn.  Although they opened most of their presents on Christmas Eve, I had saved a couple in the cupboard.  Shila knew exactly what to do with it since she got so much practice the night before tearing open presents.

Taz on the other hand was a little slow.  He wasn't quite sure what to do with it as pictured above.  Doh!

Shila tore into her present revealing a stuffed bone and she got to town immediately.

Like I said.  Taz is a little slow.  He just guarded his.  Sigh.

The rest of the day we relaxed at the house, then took the dogs on a very long walk.  They loved it!  And then to finish the evening off we went and got Chinese food (apparently this is a very Jewish thing to do on Christmas Day).  I was supposed to cook but just didn't feel like it.  Oops!  We went to very ethnic Chinese restaurant and experienced culture shock.  I'll save that story for a different day.  :)

On Boxing day we.....hmmm.  What did we do?  Hmm, I can't remember but that evening I cooked a yummy dinner of steak au poivre with a brandied cream sauce.  It was YUM!  We then rushed out the door for the highly anticipated Luminares at our local Desert Botanical Gardens.  I tried to get tickets last year but they were sold out.  But this year I scored early and was so excited!

Rich wasn't as excited.

:)

I like this picture because it looks like he has two lit-up fingers behind his head.  Teehee!!

Luminares is when they fill the Garden paths with simple yet beautiful luminares. 

 It makes for a very romantic evening bundled up in your warmest clothes and keeping close to your loved one.  :)  I am wearing my "chewbacca" coat which I don't particularly like to wear but it's so ridiculously warm that I had no choice.  I feel like J-Lo when I wear it.

Part of the popularity of Lunimares are the extremely talented musical groups scattered around the gardens.  Here is our favorite.

A local band called Hey Boys.  A mix of country and bluegrass and some awesome personalities made for an awesome band.  Check out the second guy.

That's his version of a double-bass.  Very cool, huh?  He was extremely talented!

Being a music nerd, my other favorite were the handbells.  They played "my little dreidel" which I thought was pretty cute!

Our other favorite was the flamenco guitarist and crew.  There's something very captivating about a flamenco guitarist.  Makes you feel like you're in a romantic movie in the South of Spain.  :)

I do highly recommend Luminares for musical enthusiasts.  But make sure you get there with plenty of time to wander.  We got there rather late and didn't see every musical group.

The night of Boxing Day, I also got to finally use a videocam to talk to my family in India.  I wish I had taken a picture of us talking.  That would have been kinda funny.  It was awesome though and I plan to do more talking via videocam soon!  ps - it's free!

New Years Eve was spent with our neighborhood friends whom we met via softball this fall.  Now listen Rich and I are not bar-goers, nor do we really drink a lot and to be honest we're both light weights although I'm sure Rich would probably beg to differ.  Prior to this N.Y.E., I couldn't tell you the last time I got sloshed.  Needless to say this N.Y.E. was quite different!  I'll save you pictures as we all look rather inebriated through them all but here are three of my favorites.

Don't ask.

Don't ask.

Don't ask.

Seriously, I don't know what this picture is about but it was the last picture taken that night and I have no idea who took it or what it's about but it makes me smile because it is SO random.  :)

And there you go folks!  That was a quick (ok - fine, not so quick) recap of our Holidays!  So from our family...

...to yours, I hope you had a beautiful Holiday Season!

Psssst....do you want to see the first take of our family picture?

Here you will see Taz's back, Shila's tail and my closed eyes.  Good ol' Rich looks the best but also looks like he is about to bust a move.

:)