Christmas 2011

My family and I had a very nice Christmas. It was loaded with food and family and was very relaxing.

Christmas Eve we had my mom come over for dinner and to play some games. We ate a ton of good food. Kristy made a cheese fondue and some meatballs and french bread to dip them in and Eggnog Bread Pudding for dessert. It was a very nice evening. After Logan went to bed, Kristy and I prepared the rest of Christmas and watched our annual tradition of Christmas Vacation.

The next morning we awoke and got ready for Church. It was only an hour and it was fantastic. I wish I could start every Christmas morning this way. We came home after visiting with a few people after the services and ate some breakfast and opened gifts. To say that Logan was excited was definitely an overstatement! We opened up our awesome gifts and then proceeded to stuff ourselves sick with candy. That evening we played games and watched the football game. Like I said, it was nice and relaxing.

I absolutely hate putting up/taking down lights from the Christmas Tree. I don't know if you can tell that from how I look.

Logan in his obligatory Christmas pic.

For Boxing Day we went over to my dad's to spend the day there. We ordered Chinese food and once again I stuffed myself with too much candy. I have a major weakness for fudge and (un)fortunately dad had a ton of it. I must have eaten a couple pounds of the stuff. We played cards and games and did our $5 Gift Card Pool. I got a K-Mart gift card which I traded for a Walmart one which I traded for an Amazon gift card. Which interestingly enough is the gift card which I purchased for the party. And I already know what I want to get!

So all in all I had a very nice Christmas. Unfortunately now that Christmas has passed, I have to get on with some New Year's Resolutions and lose the weight I gained and eat better!

Christmas: The Aftermath

I like Christmas, don't get me wrong but sometimes I wish I had a more simple Christmas. Maybe that will be a goal in the future, to have a Christmas where I help out at a soup kitchen or something like that. It is not like I had a crappy Christmas because I didn't. I had a very nice, relaxing and pleasant Christmas. I just think I want to do something different. Maybe I just need to spend Christmas away from home sometime. Away from all the commercialism, away from all the drama that somehow only rears its head around the holidays, away from the stress that the holiday season can bring.

Anyway...

Christmas Eve we had my mom over for a very nice evening. We had cheese fondue with meatballs and stuffed mushrooms. We played games until it was time for Logan to go to bed. But before he went to bed he was allowed to open a gift and he was so happy that he got a cool pair of Yoda feet slippers.

After we put a very excited Logan to bed, I asked my wife if she checked our sh*tters. I don't want them to be full during the holidays. As you can tell, Kristy and I stayed up late and got everything ready for the next day and watched Christmas Vacation; as is our tradition.

The next day was very relaxing. We didn't do a darn thing but play around and eat heaps of candy. Logan woke up at 6:00 in the morning but stayed in his room until 8:00 and then came in and got us. We came downstairs and then opened our gifts. As usual Logan cleaned up but the rest of us didn't do so shabby. I got some fun gifts, I got a couple of graphic novels and some soda to drink while reading them. Santa gave me a two-liter of Vernon's Ginger Ale and now I have a new favorite soda. Ever since I tried a home brewed Ginger Ale, I have been searching for a Ginger Ale that tasted like it. Vernon's is the closest.

Aren't those slippers cool?

Santa gave us all Aggie shirts! Logan was really excited even though this pic doesn't show it.

Is he acting?

The traditional photo. Christmas 2010.

The rest of the day we snacked and ate our fondue leftovers and played games. It was nice to spend the day with my family and just relax and have fun.

The Final Christmas of the Decade

Day 59

I cannot believe how fast this decade has gone by. I thought it was amazing when we hit the year 2001 (like Arthur C. Clarke's book) and now we are hitting his sequel 2010!

What is really strange to me is that my son Logan has been with me for 7 of those years and that I have been married the whole decade!

The week of Christmas was filled with a lot of fun and excitement. On the 22nd we celebrated Logan's 7th birthday. That afternoon he had some of his friends come over to play games and eat lightsaber cake and ice cream. During it he lost his tooth, it was not that the cake was hard.


He and his friends had a lot of fun. That evening we went out to eat, he wanted to go to Sizzler (he had won an award for a free meal and wanted to use it) and he called his Grandma Platis to see if she would come too. We all met at the Sizzler and had a good meal. After that we came home and Grandpa Platis and Grandma Pauline and Nathan came over.

On Christmas Eve, Grandma Platis came over again to spend the evening with us. We ate a terrific ham dinner and relaxed. Logan scored some great Christmas gifts from Grandma (we are allowed to open Grandma's gifts on Christmas Eve) and we put together some Star Wars Legos. After she left and Logan went to bed, Kristy and I watched our annual Christmas Vacation movie and played a quick game of Simpsons Scene It that we got from Grandma.

The next morning Logan slept in till 9:00 and ran downstairs to see if Santa came. And sure enough he did. When we got downstairs, Logan had already sorted the gifts out. We all had a great Christmas, I scored some awesome candy and some nice clothes. We stayed in all day playing games and eating candy. While we were eating some breakfast, Logan lost his second tooth of the week!





On Boxing Day we went to visit Grandpa Papoo (Platis) and Grandma Pauline and ate some baklava and played some games. We spent all day there all snug and warm with them and my sister and her family.


All in all it was a very pleasant Christmas and a great one to end the decade with. I am already looking forward to next year.

Christmas Memories: Fooled on Christmas Eve

Day 54

When I was younger we had another family tradition. One that would excite me and then suddenly dash my hopes the very next second. And I would fall for this every year.

Every Christmas Eve, after we delivered our plates of goodies we would settle in for a night of playing board games. My family had the best collection of board games. Probably my favorite board game we would play was Full House. This tradition has continued in my family and so has the Full House too. Kristy likes the game so much that she laminated all the guest cards. And this game has nothing to do with the crappy TV show.

After playing games we would sit around the Christmas tree and tell the story of the birth of Jesus. After that my mom would allow us to open one gift. I was so excited to open a gift. I would rip it apart, eager to see what I got. And every year it was the same thing. I got pyjamas. Every year I was fooled.

But then one year I was allowed to open up two gifts. One of them was pyjamas of course but I thought for sure that the second gift would be something cool. And it was sorta. I got a stuffed animal.

This tradition has been passed down to my family as well. Kristy will get us pyjamas and on occasion will make us some comfy fleece pyjamas too.


Logan still has problems getting his pyjamas on correctly. ;)

When I served my LDS mission to New York, my companion and I decided to open all of our gifts at midnight Christmas Eve. The neighbors upstairs were partying loud so we were not sleeping anyway.

Christmas Memories: Christmas Eve Goodies

Day 46

The last few days I have blogged about some of my favorite Christmas traditions and now I will share another one that I have not done for many years.

When I lived in Edmonton, every Christmas Eve my family and I got together and we went around delivering plates of treats to some of the people we know. We would just knock on the door and run, leaving the plate of goodies on the steps. These were not your ordinary treats either. This was a huge plate loaded with my dad's famous Baklava (Baklava is a Greek pastry. Loaded with butter, honey and chopped nuts and topped with a clove), my mom's famous Snowball cookies and Grandma Anhder's famous Fruitcake.


I remember one Christmas Eve in particular when we also picked up a Christmas tree and delivered it anonymously to a set of newlyweds that were very poor. It felt good delivering these treats. And the smell of Baklava cooking fills the house and just reminds me of those simpler times.

I asked my mom for those recipes so I can post them here. During this week I am going to attempt to make some of them. The Snowball cookies are the easiest to make so I am going to start there. These recipes originated from my Aunt Helen. Yet again, I am stealing an idea from a fellow blogger. Thanks Jennifer!


SNOWBALL COOKIES

1 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Finely Chopped Pecans
Confectioners Sugar

Bream butter, sugar and vanilla till fluffy. Add flour and salt to creamed mixture blending thoroughly.
Add pecans and mix well. Shape into one-inch balls and place on baking sheet.

Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes. Do not brown, they should be light. Cool and then roll in powdered sugar. Yields about 6 dozen.

I'll have to let you know how they turned out.