we had such a great christmas. we headed up to my parents’ house friday morning, and my mom and i baked while my dad, joe and my brother watched a movie. i made a milk chocolate bundt cake with a chocolate glaze (i got the recipe from kelly). we also made an apple pie from scratch. they both turned out really well and were so good, even though my mom’s oven was a little too hot and the pie got a little burned on the top.

we gave my grandparents their presents at their home before heading over to ryan and ori’s for christmas eve dinner and presents. my grandpa recently broke his ankle and his shoulder, so it’s hard for him to get around now. my grandma is pretty tired from taking care of him, so it was easier for them to stay home. they were quite happy, though, with their books and chinese food. 🙂

we had dinner this year with part of ori’s family. her older sister wasn’t able to make it, but everyone else was there. it was a big crowd. we brought our traditional chow mein and fruit salad dinner, and ori’s mom brought haystacks. i’m a *huge* haystack fan, so i passed on the chow mein this year. hopefully my parents weren’t too offended!

after dinner, ori’s family left since they decided to do presents christmas morning, and we were left to open our presents by ourselves. everyone got some great gifts this year. i got some awesome things: a pillow from my grandparents with our engagement picture on it, a pillow ori made, a framed picture of my nephew, a tire pump (my tire’s been leaking air so this was a great gift!), a bunch of apple items for my kitchen, gift cards (what i really wanted!), a harry and david gift basket from my aunt and uncle (i look forward to that every year) and an itunes gift card. there’s a funny story behind that gift card. my brother, randy, had ordered it for me. for some reason, he had it sent to my parents’ house. my dad’s name also is randy, and since it said “merry christmas, cady” and my mom had gotten my dad an ipod for christmas, she thought it was from me to him. she called and was upset that i had almost ruined his surprise. obviously, i had no idea what she was talking about, so i called itunes to find out where this card had come from. meanwhile, my mom somehow figured out it was from my brother, and called joe to tell him to cover. however, i was already on the phone with him. he came up with this story that he had bought it for my dad as a gift just from him. i believed him, and all day on christmas eve i was asking about the card and trying to figure out where it was, but no one would give me a straight answer. finally, i opened the card on christmas eve and said, “why am i getting dad’s gift?” haha. we’re dorks. but at least it all worked out. 🙂

on christmas day, we peeled 40 POUNDS OF POTATOES. yes, people. 40 POUNDS. this is because my parents normally do 20 pounds (they like the leftovers) and figured since there were going to be 19 people at dinner we would need 50 pounds. we fell 10 pounds short, which is good, because we never got through the first dish! now, they have a pot full of leftovers. 🙂 dinner was fun though. joe’s parents and nana came up, and ori’s family came over. it was a full house, but it was a lot of fun.

joe’s dad and nana kept telling me how good i looked with a baby while i was holding harrison. this is their way of not stressing me out. 🙂 they’re just eager, but i’m trying not to worry about it and hoping that helps.

we were also able to get a family picture, which was really nice. i don’t remember the last time we got one of all of us. too bad my sister’s family is sick and won’t be able to make it down. our plan was to get one with everyone. hopefully they’ll be able to visit soon.

tonight, joe’s at a friend’s house playing magic, and i’m meeting his family for dinner at panera. it’s kind of weird going without him, but oh well. i’m sure it’ll still be fun. 🙂