The Holidays begin

Last week was all about family. On Thursday we drove to Phoenix to spend Thanksgiving with Sean's family, hosted by his oldest brother, Tighe. His other brother Nate and girlfriend April drove down from Flagstaff, and the Tucson clan (his sister Cait, grandmother Pat, mother Andrea, and uncle John) all went up as well to share the Thanksgiving feast and pass the night together.

His family is really into gourmet cooking, so the food was fantastic. The full spread is pictured above, and at the near end is Andrea's famous stuffing. I've never had anything like it. She makes it Santa Fe style with cornbread, chorizo, dried apricots and cherries. There was also a roasted winter vegetable medley with turnips, butternut squash and carrots, and excellent homemade cranberry sauce.

My new sisters April and Caitlin

The morning after Thanksgiving we drove back to Tucson and were at home just long enough to shower and put on fresh clothes before we drove to my grandparents' house for another Thanksgiving. This night differed from the one before in just a few aspects: there was no gourmet food, no sit-down dinner and really no mention of Thanksgiving at all. In fact, the night was more of an early Christmas than anything. Since the family would not be all together at Christmas, it was decided that we would celebrate early for the kids. It felt like a total time warp as we exchanged gifts while listening to Bing Crosby and drinking eggnog.

Everybody
(Well, almost. Of course we forgot to take the group picture until after a third of the people had already left.)

Me in some holiday bling with my grandma. She is a genius with bows for her X-mas presents and I happen to love putting on said bows during the unwrapping extravaganza.

Annetta came with us and received her first ever present from Santa : )
(A hand soap & lotion set, which she said she actually needed. How did he know...?)

At home at last, Sean and I spent Saturday cleaning the house and decorating for Christmas. It was my first glimpse of his amazing collection of antique tree ornaments and holiday decorations. It was a little overwhelming at first as I put my three ornaments in to the mix, but it turned out really lovely. Our first Christmas together!