Saturday 26 December 2009

Happy Christmas from England!

This was my first year being away from home for Christmas, so things were a little different than they usually are. For one, Christopher and I both had to work on Christmas day. So, we had our big Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. We invited some friends over and had ham, pot roast, roasted baby potatoes with Rosemary, deviled eggs, spicy garlic brocolini, Razzleberry pie, shortbread cookies, and my own take on Snickerdoodles. It was delicious! And we had a great time. I totally dont have any pictures of our friends and us hanging out that night, which sucks.

We almost had a white Christmas...this was the day before Christmas Eve.


After dinner, we went to midnight mass at the chapel on base, which was cool. The only catholic service I've ever been to was Aaron and Kellea's wedding, so it was interesting. The priest is on TDY (Temporary orders) to England and is actually staying in the hotel I'm working, so I see him in and out of the lobby on a regular basis. He's from Poland and during the caroling before the service started, he sang a stanza of "Silent Night" in Polish! It was beautiful!

My nativity, with my new Wisemen and the star I hung on Christmas Eve!

After the service, we went back home and finally managed to get to sleep about 3. Christopher had to be at work at 645 and I had to be at work at 745. Its not a good way to start your Christmas morning by a phone call waking you up at 755...ten minutes after you're supposed to be at work. My alarms hadn't gone off. So, I jump out of bed and call work, get yelled at, but manage to make it to work in less than 20 minutes! That was my Christmas Miracle! Everything was turned over and done before the girl I was relieving was supposed to leave, so no harm done.

A couple of my friends ended up coming over and hanging out with me all day, so that was awesome. I skyped with Mom a little bit when she first got up, and then with everyone while they were opening their gifts. Then I got to go home at 4 and I stuffed Christopher's stocking, hung it up, and went to wake him up (he got off at 1 and went home to get some sleep). We got up and did presents! We got to skype with everyone and see them open our presents, that was really cool.

All the Christmas cards we received!
The Christmas Tree with all the presents!
I was SPOILED rotten this year! I got TONS of stuff... clothes, an iPod touch, sweaters, hats, gloves, pajamas, unmentionables (lol), a fuzzy purple pullover, The 10 piece porcelain non-stick Rachel Ray cookware set, Christopher made me a jewelry tree, and it had on it a silver ring and sparrow earrings, and tons of stocking stuffers!!! We're hoping this is our last Christmas just the two of us, so Christopher definitely spoiled me! He got his MacBook, a freeze-dried chunk of grass from the old Yankee stadium and a display box to in, clothes, a new red columbia coat, boots, DVD's (Harry Potter 3 and 6, & Star Trek). So, he got pretty spoiled this year too!


Gus opening his presents!
I took a nap after we opened gifts and then we got up and headed back to my work. We took all our leftovers from Christmas Eve and had Christmas Dinner with Liz and her husband since Liz had to work. Our friend Jenn, whose family is still in the states right now, even came too! So, we microwaved the leftovers, Tim brought their TV tables from home, and we plopped down in the lobby and had Christmas dinner together!

Liz and I in our matching Christmas hats... I look exhausted!
Liz and Tim

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas! We definitely had a wonderful time! I thought it would be really sad to be away from home, and it was sad at times, but I made it all through Christmas and didnt cry! And Mom didnt either, so that's good! :)

2 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you guys had a great Christmas! Sounds like you did score on presents! Also, Hope you two have a Happy New Year with great things in store!!! You both deserve the world!

    Love ya

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  2. WOW at all the presents!! I'm so glad you had a great Christmas together....even with all the work (blug) :o)

    Happy New Year!

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