Christmas Weekend
Dec. 29th, 2008 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marenziSo I'm alive after all! The past week just - I honestly can't account for half of that time. What happened, people? But good times were had, so I really can't complain. I was firmly planted in the kitchen for five days straight, which was beyond awesome. I'm not even going to get into that now because I'm planning an epic picspam/storytelling sometime tonight.
Christmas turned out nice, even if we didn't do much. I was sort of nostalgic re:decorations, because they just didn't happen; we did get a tree, but didn't decorate it or hang stockings. IDK, they were just so iconic as a kid that I really missed them now, especially since it's my last year at home and all. My parents found me an elliptical though, so that was awesome! I wasn't expecting anything like that, because even secondhand ellipticals are well over $100 and that tends to be the family limit. But a neighbor got one and hated it, so she sold it for $50 just to get it out of her house. Whatever, I'm psyched! It's definitely an improvement over working out after school in the gym basement, because now it's stuffed with the lacrosse boys who're training. (Okay, so that admittedly wasn't exactly a hardship, but.)
And then AND THEN. I drove up to Pennsylvania early Friday morning (ugh, I did not sleep at all last week) to help with another family dinner. My maternal grandparents were first-generation Americans, and my mom was one of nine kids. My mom's around the middle of the group age-wise, but I'm the youngest of the first cousins because she didn't have me until she was forty-two. In comparison, all of her sisters were married & pregnant at eighteen, so a lot of my cousins are the same age as my dad. The generations just sort of devolve from there, because I'm pretty sure I somehow have third cousins who are older than me? Freaking over-prolific Italians, I just can't keep them straight anymore!
Anyway. Two of my adult cousins, who are brothers, carried over the family Christmas dinner when Pap & Nonna died; every year since then, they've done this absolutely over-the-top, melt-in-your-mouth-to-die-for themed dinner. Over the last fourteen years, they've covered every region of the globe other than Antarctica; this year was Africa.
Like I said, I'll leave the actual food-squee for another post, but the sheer quantity of food was just incredible. We were cooking for seventy-some people, all crammed into one small house. I think we used twenty-four chickens and over twenty pounds of baby spinach.
I spent Saturday night in Pennsylvania and then took the long way home yesterday. All back roads, no highways - it was fantastic. I was really disappointed not to find any little coffeeshops (I have a thing), but it was still so relaxing. Mmph. Good way to end the week.
I really hope all of you had happy Christmases as well! ♥
Christmas turned out nice, even if we didn't do much. I was sort of nostalgic re:decorations, because they just didn't happen; we did get a tree, but didn't decorate it or hang stockings. IDK, they were just so iconic as a kid that I really missed them now, especially since it's my last year at home and all. My parents found me an elliptical though, so that was awesome! I wasn't expecting anything like that, because even secondhand ellipticals are well over $100 and that tends to be the family limit. But a neighbor got one and hated it, so she sold it for $50 just to get it out of her house. Whatever, I'm psyched! It's definitely an improvement over working out after school in the gym basement, because now it's stuffed with the lacrosse boys who're training. (Okay, so that admittedly wasn't exactly a hardship, but.)
And then AND THEN. I drove up to Pennsylvania early Friday morning (ugh, I did not sleep at all last week) to help with another family dinner. My maternal grandparents were first-generation Americans, and my mom was one of nine kids. My mom's around the middle of the group age-wise, but I'm the youngest of the first cousins because she didn't have me until she was forty-two. In comparison, all of her sisters were married & pregnant at eighteen, so a lot of my cousins are the same age as my dad. The generations just sort of devolve from there, because I'm pretty sure I somehow have third cousins who are older than me? Freaking over-prolific Italians, I just can't keep them straight anymore!
Anyway. Two of my adult cousins, who are brothers, carried over the family Christmas dinner when Pap & Nonna died; every year since then, they've done this absolutely over-the-top, melt-in-your-mouth-to-die-for themed dinner. Over the last fourteen years, they've covered every region of the globe other than Antarctica; this year was Africa.
Like I said, I'll leave the actual food-squee for another post, but the sheer quantity of food was just incredible. We were cooking for seventy-some people, all crammed into one small house. I think we used twenty-four chickens and over twenty pounds of baby spinach.
I spent Saturday night in Pennsylvania and then took the long way home yesterday. All back roads, no highways - it was fantastic. I was really disappointed not to find any little coffeeshops (I have a thing), but it was still so relaxing. Mmph. Good way to end the week.
I really hope all of you had happy Christmases as well! ♥
