I still maintain that HAJI is a word.

Christmas came and went without too much drama.
I think it was a good luck year for us.

To start, we had a white Christmas! First time in 103 years (according to Channel 7) that we've had snow falling on Christmas Day in Colorado. I tell you what, there is really nothing quite like waking up to that on Christmas morning. It was fabulous!



And the rest of our day went off without a hitch! We opened stockings and presents while drinking coffee and eating our incredibly delicious cinnamon rolls made from scratch (we've decided that that's our Christmas morning tradition from now on...we've done that 3 times now and it's always been a good time). The rolls were perfection, even if they didn't rise the way they were supposed to (stupid elevation and it's humidity!).





Todd got me a silver card holder, some awesome pens and Hello Kitty notepads, two pairs of footie pajamas that I've basically been living in, a cookbook that I've been itching to get (all about high-elevation baking, so that's awesome), and another fun book that I'd been eyeing. And as always, he jam packed my stocking full of Hershey's Kisses that I'll never be able to eat all of. hahahahaha!

But the best of all, was that he got me......







A HIPPOPOTAMUS FOR CHRISTMAS! True story. It's all in homage to a song from the 40s that I absolutely adore (and the fact that I won't quit bugging him about getting me kittens). He found a tiny stuffed hippo a a spice store (of all places) that we sort of happened upon on Saturday. So that was pretty awesome! We're going to keep him in the box of Christmas decor and break him out ever year....he was sitting on the tree most of the day, looking rather adorable.

I made my family's traditional Christmas dinner, with quite a bit of help from Todd. We had a 10lb. roasted turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (that Todd secretly marinated in olive oil, garlic, and black pepper...made for some delicious eats), homemade gravy, biscuits, and some wonderful champagne in our new toasting flutes (because I'm a dork and forgot to bring them to the wedding. errr derrr). Everything went off without a single hitch and we didn't die from the turkey, which was a concern of mine since we don't yet have a meat thermometer (I'll be purchasing one this weekend, to be sure).




Any part of the day that wasn't taken up by eating or cooking was spent playing Scrabble and watching movies. Around 730pm, we headed over to my parents for dessert (mmm....plum pudding!!! My favorite! I'm going to have to learn how to make it one of these days) and played some games with the fam and my parents friend, Karen from the dance studio.


(todd actually drew that from the tile bag)





(and then he wouldn't trade me for an "R"...you can see pretty clearly why i needed it)


So that was our Christmas...hope you enjoyed this latest installment!

Oh and HAJI is a person on a pilgrimage to Mecca, in case you ever need to use the word.