Home for Christmas

I arrived home for Christmas in Fonthill on December 18th. My mom always makes the house so beautiful during Christmastime, and this year was no exception.

Every year I wrap presents in a “theme”. I’m somewhat of a gift-wrap obsessed person (Chris constantly makes fun of my gift-wrapping drawer and my re-using of all wrapping items). This year I found cute sweater/knit patterned wrapping paper at Winners, and used that to decide my “rustic” theme. I finished everything off with some rugged jute and cute country gift tags I got on sale at Anthropologie last year.

One evening, when my parents were out at a Christmas party, my little niece Kendra came for a sleepover. She’s basically my mini-me and BFF, so this was super exciting. We spent the evening making and decorating Christmas cookies, drawing tons of pictures, and watching Chimpanzee (the documentary-style Disney movie about chimps that is so so good).

I always love the pre-Christmas festivities the most, even more than Christmas itself. You know, baking cookies, watching a ton of Christmas movies, doing last-minute shopping, wrapping presents while listening to Christmas carols, etc. Love it all. This year was no exception – I think I watched more Christmas movies this year than ever before, like Serendipity, Elf, The Wishing Tree, and It’s a Wonderful Life. We had a lot of snow in Fonthill too, which made things seem even more Christmassy than in years past. No Christmas vacation is perfect though, and between my bedroom flooding in a major rain/ice storm, breaking my patella (by cracking it on the kitchen table while drawing with Kendra…dramatic, I know), and being gluten-poisoned every other meal, this Christmas definitely had its drawbacks. All that was made up for though by the incredible love of my family, the warmth of our home, and the joy in seeing Kendra and Maxx unwrap presents and eagerly search for their names under the tree!

My family celebrates Christmas on December 24th (it’s a Dutch thing) by enjoying a big steak and seafood dinner. This year we had shrimp cocktail, steaks, Caesar salad, mashed potatoes, and a ton of desserts. YUM. Then we all piled into the front living room to open presents. I bought Kendra and Maxx matching real children’s guitars, and hopefully one day my mom will be able to teach them how to play! Tyson and Krista gave me a calendar and a Starbucks gift card, and Chris and I gave them a basket chock full of canned goods made by Chris. I gave my grandma a framed graduation picture of myself, which had everyone laughing. What type of a vain person gives someone a picture of themselves?! Bahaha. Whoops. Along with giving my parents a two-night stay at a fancy hotel in NYC, I gave my mom a pale pink fur stole, and my dad the new John Grisham book with some of his favourite chocolates.

My parents’ big gifts to Kendra and Maxx were a hockey net (for Maxx) and a mechanical mom and baby furry cat (for Kendra). I love her expression in the photo above, when the cat starting moving around and meowing! Hahaha! Once everyone had gone home, my parents, Chris, and I retired to the family room to relax. Chris gave my mom a brand new Kate Spade purse (she cried.), and my dad a bottle of premium tequila (he did not cry). I always like opening my presents after the little ones leave, so that I can be fully present in their Christmas unwrapping during the short time it takes them to rip through everything. Plus I have a habit of savouring my gifts. You know, open one here, one there. It annoys my parents and other people who want to see me open everything rightnow, but I like to have gifts for days! Muhahah.

The next morning, we had a big pancake breakfast (which Chris slept through), and I unwrapped my stocking from Santa and the rest of my presents. My dad had hand-built me a coffee table, out of a beautiful walnut slab of wood and some reclaimed steel and bolts. My uncle helped, and the bolts were all from a table built by my great-opa. It is truly a beautiful work of art, and it is all the more special because my dad built it. Here are some other things I received this year: the Mindy Kaling book, “I am Malala” book, the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, a Martha Stewart file folder for organizing all my important papers, and Clinique make-up. My parents bought Chris an awesome Columbia thermal tweed jacket/shirt, suspenders, and cuff-links. Swank-kaaay. By the way, doesn’t he look like such a gentleman in the photo above, sipping his port in his little bow-tie?

For Christmas dinner my parents made a big turkey, with all the trimmings, and marmalade-glazed green beans. SO GOOD. It was a pretty low-key and quiet evening, just the way I like it. We spent most of the night fixing some damage done to my bedroom in the flood…not exactly what we had in mind for Christmas, but it was made nonetheless entertaining by a certain boyfriend of mine who discovered my high school collection of CDs and felt the need to blare Backstreet Boys while loading all my stuff back into the room. It was hilarious, complete with vocals and tight dance moves. Love my man.

On Boxing Day, we drove through an icy wonderland up to Grafton to celebrate with Chris’ family. They have a huge boxing day party with 30 people! It was awesome, and I loved seeing everyone again. Chris and his brother-in-law wrestled in the living room, we watched all the nieces and nephews open presents, and indulged in way too much amazing food. All in all, a wonderful Christmas holiday!