This year marked our first holidays in our new house. I knew that moving in the month of December, between birthdays, the holidays and of course, Michigan blizzards would pose numerous obstacles, it has been well worth it. Needless to say, we are still working on getting ourselves settled in but we have already come to love the space and the coziness that we've been able to establish. Our Den is about the only room that is done but with other rooms well on their way as well as our new windows, our hard work is paying off!
As you can imagine, with multiple family members nearby or around during the holidays it can be a bit of a zoo! In fact, ZMW and I each caught a 24-hour bug as we careened from house to house during blizzard season, worked long hours at work and yet longer hours on the house. Despite the scheduling madness, it has been so wonderful to spend time with family and I am SO grateful to be able to enjoy a few more days off to recuperate before the new year. Needless to say, the holiday is not quite the same without my brother and sister-in-law around - miss you guys!
Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family and we attended midnight mass. ZMW was thrilled - no joke - to sing 'holy hymns!' We enjoyed my mother's traditional pre-Noche Buena seafood pasta and eagerly awaited her famous pineapple upside-down cake! The house was not quite as music filled without my brother and sister-in-law - in years past, our collective piano-side Christmas tunes were the highlight of the evening (: 
Christmas morning, 'Santa's' loot was discovered by Anna. It was a quiet and lovely morning with the three of us and ZMW spoiled us with jewelry. Anna scored an angel pendant necklace and I, a pair of diamond earings. WOW! Material things seem so small compared to what we have together as a family but it never fails to be a show stopper to open those little blue boxes ;)
Following a tradition my brother and I started when we were kids, we went to a Marley & Me for our Christmas day movie! It was the perfect interlude to my cooking marathon as I prepared to host an eleven person Christmas dinner in our new diggs! Tradition definitely becomes most relevent during this time of year, as I surprised myself with my holiday menus - they were all creepily close to those wondeful holiday main dishes that I grew up with. My Prime Rib roast was rockin'! 
in our new home. It's on the docket as I plan out the rest of our vacation in town (: For now, I am happily stuffed with holiday food and cheer and look forward to ringing in the new year!!
See here for Part I of our holiday pictures!
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