Home for Christmas
Merry Christmas from Charlottesville! We had such a great day. As much as I loved my family time growing up, today was such a wonderful celebration with my little family. There were a lot of firsts.
Christmas Eve[ning] was just as great. We planned to attend a 5:30 service at Aldersgate United Methodist Church but after unsuccessfully making a coffee cake ahead of time, we stayed home and got dinner together before attending the 7:30 service. For dinner I was going to make pork skewers with peanut sauce. Only problem was I forgot to get skewers so I cooked the pork, peppers, and pineapple in a skillet while Tim helped me make the peanut sauce. I also warmed corn soup (from Kroger) which is a tradition from my family. It turned out so well. I was, and still am, so excited about making a great dinner for my first time in charge of this meal.
The service at Aldersgate was much, if not just like services at Calvary. A great feature Calvary does not boast itself is a parents room. The small room connected by large window enables parents to take their children out of the santuary to play while still listening to the service. Sara Ellen made it through the service with help from a borrowed coloring book. We even took her up for communion by intinction. I gave her half my bread. 
We even said hello to a man and his mother behind us who enjoyed Sara Ellen’s cuteness.
At home we watched “Polar Express” together while snacking on popcorn and clementines. After Sara Ellen got to sleep, Tim and I got to be the parents (another 1st for us) and put the presents under the tree while our daughter slept.
This morning we opened our stockings first. I was, childishly, sad because I thought I only had socks from Dad (thank you!) in mine because Tim didn’t buy stuffers. However, I’d forgotten there was a stocking-sized present for me in the bags from my family. To clarify, the socks from Dad came down when we moved in. The gift bags came back with us after last weekends visit north. I opened the long, thin, white-tissue-paper-wrapped stuffer labeled “Rebekah: I could fit in a stocking” and found a lovely Edward Cullen, Twilight the Movie bookmark! I got Edward Cullen for Christmas!!
After stockings, I made our first Christmas breakfast. I’ve never been allowed to make Christmas breakfast. Seriously. Growing up, my siblings and I waited upstairs while my parents made breakfast. When we descended, the entryway to the livingroom was covered with a sheet so we could not see the tree until breakfast was finished. I didn’t do anything fancy this morning, just eggs, Jimmy Dean links and coffee cake, the usual. Sadly, sort of, the coffee cake was not up to expectations. Tim’s step-mother gave us a cherry recipe he likes and hasn’t had a long time. We had all the right ingredients (last time we tried it was in Norway) but not the right sized pan. It needed to be four inches longer so it took a lot longer to cook and I’m not sure it even finished. Any longer and the top would have browned. Everything was tasty anyway but the cake was so sugary I’m glad we had the eggs and sausage!
In front of our new tree, we had to restrain Sara Ellen from ripping open all the presents. We also attempted to space out the dozen(s of) presents from her between those for Tim and I. I also had to pretend I hadn’t seen Tim’s present for me one morning after it had been delivered but not yet received. It’s great! An iron, curly-q-designed calendar wall frame. Our 2009 calendar is our 2nd work of personal photographic art and deserved a lovely presentation. Sara Ellen got several fun new toys (yay for her own lego duplos!) and several unusual books (plus the classic In the Night Kitchen from the amazon list). We discovered Tim looks best in crewnecks, not v-necks, but crewnecks combined with dress shirts look great! No offence to anyone else but my favorite gifts came from Emily (ok, equal with Tim’s): EC bookmark, promise for The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide by Stephenie Meyer! (she even made me a card to look like it). She also has Twilight/Eclipse fingerless gloves in the making for me! Yes, I have OCD (Obsessive Cullen Disorder).
We had a lovely day hanging out together. Sara Ellen played with her new toys, and she loves her new books (night kitchen already has a small tear). We discovered the Endless Ocean, Wii game from my father for a while, talked to family on the phone. I got passed around to 9 different people at my family’s house, another 1st for me. We waited for Sara Ellen to take a nap, though we didn’t try hard, and around 5 or so got going on dinner. There were a few changes but it was an amazing 1st dinner on our own! I warmed a precooked hickory smoked ham, made Stovetop stuffing (my new favorite!), used a new cranberry relish recipe (incredible! lots of leftovers), cooked frozen beans using the herb recipe from the back of the bag. And instead of using the fancy chef’s recipe from BHG I intended, we steamed the florets and added butter and cheese. Everything smelled amazing and tasted so good I wanted to keep eating.
We sat down together again for the movie “Elf” but I spent the whole time putting up pictures and writing this book for you. And now hopefully I can post it before it’s not Christmas Day anymore!
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