Christmas 2011
Our town, Maniago, busted out their holiday lights and got a little festive a few weeks ago. Coming home every night has been a blast, and I not-so-secretly hope they keep them up a little while longer!
 |
| Bakery a few steps from our house |
We were a little shocked with how many people were out and about the night we were out. By the way, these were taken around 5:30 pm. The sun sets here around 4 pm these days. Absolutely crazy! I need to take pictures of our town in the daylight, but here are a few more around the town center at night:
Being far from home is difficult, especially over the holidays, but my husband is pretty unbelievable and decided to recreate my family’s traditional Christmas breakfast, right down to making homemade funnel cakes!
Yup, I said funnel cakes, as in the deliciously bad-for-you fried dessert you get at the state fair. Well, we have funnel cakes for Christmas—how fun is that? I don’t know when the tradition of serving funnel cakes on Christmas morning started, but every year we go over to my grandma’s house and have funnel cakes, eggs, bacon, chile, and toast, and then we open presents.
 |
| There was a big, heavy box sitting under the tree teasing for weeks, so we couldn’t help ourselves and opened one present the night before Christmas. Inside was this gorgeous dutch oven from my in-laws! We’ve been wanting one for awhile, so this is just fantastic! Thank you 🙂 |
 |
| They were SOOOO good! |
 |
| I got all fancy schmancy with my milk. Also, yes, we ate breakfast at our coffee table and listened to Christmas music. That’s how we roll. |
Lunchtime consisted of cheese, meat, carbs, and more cheese and carbs. Just looking at this is making me hungry again. I forgot to take a picture of our queso, but just imagine delicious spicy melted cheese that you have to eat with tortilla chips.
We kinda didn’t hold back this Christmas at all. Since my husband was “in charge” of planning things he wanted to go all out. So. Um. We bought a turkey, brined the turkey, cooked a whole turkey, and I made an entire green bean casserole just for the two of us. The thing is, we were completely stuffed from our awesome breakfast and snack-fest lunch that we didn’t eat dinner till around 8, and even then we only had about an ounce or so of turkey. It’s a good thing we love leftover turkey!
 |
| Alton Brown’s brined turkey that we LOVE, cranberry relish, and green bean casserole (recipe coming soon). |
Throughout the day we opened lots and lots of presents. I’m still floored by how much stuff we got from everyone. It was seriously awesome and I’m still finding wrapping paper in random places.
 |
| Stocking stuffer for my husband. |
 |
| My husband let me open a gift the night before Christmas. He got me a replica wedding cake topper. We never found ours after our wedding. |
 |
| Stocking stuffers: some candy and awesome lotto tickets from my mom! I won $11 and my husband won $10 and three free tickets. We’ll mail them back to her to collect our winings |
I am so, incredibly thankful for technology. We opened presents with my family and got to “hang out” with them during our afternoon. It was great to be so close, but yet so far away.
You guys, this is the ridiculous amount of gifts my husband and I received yesterday. I’m feeling a little guilty for how much there is (I think I’m even missing a couple things from the picture), but at the same time I’m SO excited for all of it!!
And that, my friends, was Christmas 2011! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
I too am so very thankful for technology! It was so nice to be able to share Christmas with you and Kenny!
I love the Christmas pictures of Maniago! I can only imagine how beautiful it must be to see in person!
Tell Kenny that his funnel cakes look very yummy!!
Love your Dutch oven! Is it the Le Creuset or however you spell that? You guys definitely eat well! I'm a little jealous!
Oooh, I have wanted a red Le Creuset for years! I am not quite convinced I will use it enough to invest in it just yet… but I know one day it will come 🙂
I am so very happy that you all got to include your family back home in the festivities! Oh how joyous that must have been!
What a wonderful Christmas in a beautiful Italian town!
Merry Christmas! Looks like you had a wonderful holiday! Isn't video chatting the best? We did the same when my cousin came over. Her sister, my other cousin is in Georgia (her hubby is in the army.) so she watched us open Christmas gifts through Skype. 🙂
So awesome that we got to "spend" Christmas morning together 🙂 Look at all that lute!!!
Are those sipping stones??! I got those too!!! How funny 🙂
So nice to be able to spend the morning "with" your entire family! Happy holidays to you two (and Bella)!
Looks like you had a good Christmas! We too are very thankful for technology! We were able to 'spend' Christmas with both sides of our family as well =) and open presents! What an awesome thing!!!
Merry belated Christmas from the 505! Sounds like a fun day!
Ok, first of all -YUM!!!! Funnel cakes for breakfast sounds like an amazing tradition to have….
And looks like you had a great Christmas!!! 🙂
WHAT? Funnel cakes for breakfast? Your family rocks. I always suspected this, but now it's official.
Totally jealous of your dutch oven! I have wanted that exact one for YEARS! Aaaahhh, one day…and by the way…my husband has that same pop quiz clock. A friend got it for him for his birthday. 🙂 Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas, even though you are far from home, and that is AWESOME! Love you!