A Wonderful Christmas...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas was lovely. It really shows that slowing down does make a difference. I'll have to remember this in the future. Christmas Eve was nice. I decided to spend the day watching Christmas specials and reading. When Aidan got home mid-afternoon we relaxed until we had to head to church for the Children's Mass. It was an enjoyable Mass. It hurt to sing since I am a diaphragm singer but it was nice to sing the Christmas carols. The Nativity was adorable and my MIL had done a wonderful job decorating the church. After Mass we went to La Trattoria for dinner. I had some lovely mussels followed by lasagna while Aidan had chicken cacciatore. We then watch 'Fringe' until midnight. We opened one stocking gift each before going to bed. We woke up in the morning and started opening stocking gifts. The stockings were excellent this year. I think we now have figured out how to infuse the meaning that we put into the tree gifts into the stocking gifts while keeping them fun. We then jumped into the car and met my mom and dad at the graveyard. We put poinsettias on my great-grandmother and grandmother's graves (mother's) and then headed east to put flowers on my grandparent's graves (father's). Afterwards we went to my parent's house for breakfast (cassava pie and ham) and to have them open their gifts from us. Next was Aidan's parents to exchange gifts there. We finally got back home and sat on the floor next to the tree and exchanged gifts with each other. The afternoon brought Aidan's grandfather and parents and my parents to our house for Christmas dinner. Everyone brought food and we provided the china and crystal and wine. It was an excellent dinner with lots of conversation. I will admit to sitting on the couch for a quick nap in the midst of the afternoon though..... After everyone left we cleaned up and then watched more 'Fringe'. Boxing Day was nice and lazy. We finished watching 'Fringe' and then headed to Aidan's parent's for his family's Boxing Day lunch. More great food and this time games as well. When we got home it was time for 'Doctor Who'!!!!! Yesterday I overslept so I missed church - Aidan did go though. I felt pretty bad about that. We watched 'The Tudors' until we had to go out to a few friends' open houses. More food!!! We finished 'The Tudors' when we got back, watched the 2 episodes of 'United States of Tara' that were on the DVD and then started watching season 1 of 'Star Trek - The Original Series'. Today is the observance of Boxing Day since it fell on Saturday. We're going into Hamilton for lunch and to do some shopping for the Pipe Band party that we're hosting on Wednesday night and prep for our New Year's dinner. I also need to exchange a sweater (it has polka dots). And tomorrow, I need to go to the hospital for blood tests and then hopefully have lunch with a few of my interns.