2011 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Christmas was really nice. For the first time in many years we had a White Christmas. It was beautiful. We spent the day relaxing, hanging out and of course eating plenty of good foods.

We watched tons of Christmas movies this season. Still my all time favorite is A Christmas Story. Who could ever get tired of Ralphie? I tried to find or put in a Christmas movie every chance I had even if I was up cleaning or doing something else. Something about one of these holiday movies playing in the background soothes me...it's weird.

We decided we wanted to pass on the 'traditional' holiday meal that we have ALWAYS had and we had meatballs, stuffed shells, salad and a loaf of bread with garlic butter. It was delicious and a really nice switch from the usual.

I have a tradition that I started a few years ago. Every year sometime between Christmas and New Years I read Raphael, The Herald Angle. It's copyright is 1957. My great, great grandmother gave me the book when I was young. It is a wonderful short story that you can read in an hour or so. If you can find it, I highly recommend it.

We did really well on avoiding the commercialism of the holiday. I didn't purchase any new decorations. We didn't spend a lot eating out or on mind less shopping trips. My husband and I set a limit on each other and agreed we both wanted something that was useful and needed. For our friends and relatives we either gave gift cards or food gifts. Keeping it simple and focusing on the true meaning of the Holiday is very refreshing. I hope everyone was able to feel that and that we may all remember to try and keep that Holiday spirit throughout the entire year!