Merry Christmas Weekend!

How was your Christmas and Christmas weekend? Thrilling yet relaxing I hope!
David and I were both off Christmas Eve. I had planned a long run for the day, but it stormed and I stayed indoors. The storm cleared just in time for us to head out to a Christmas Eve candlelight service. We drove under this amazing brilliant rainbow on the way. If you look closely, you can see that it was actually a double rainbow - the outer ring is fainter though.

After church we went to the in-laws for a wonderful meal and gift exchange. I snatched up my totally adorable nephew and played with him for a bit. The cheeks are killing me!


Our in-laws got all the kids tickets to see Wicked, which is coming to New Orleans in March. What a fun gift!
Our Christmas morning tradition is to have a fancy breakfast at home, followed by gifts and a walk to mass. This year I made homemade waffles with strawberries and cream, cantaloupe, mimosas, and this sausage pie (I burned the crust edges!).


We opened our gifts to each other. Hubby was ecstatic about the imac! Most of my gifts require returning (poor hubby) but my favorite is an autographed copy of John Besh's new cookbook. It is as big as 4 Bibles. The hubby was also incredibly brave and bought lingerie! He's usually squeamish about that kind of purchase. And the cashier made fun of him for buying lingerie and a whisk (I have a boring wish list)! However, he has to brave scorn again to return it because it's the wrong size. Seriously, do I look like a 36 anything?! LOL.
Our walk to beautiful Holy Name of Jesus was freezing, but it was fun and the mood on the street was jolly. The priest was awful, though! He had the most monotonous homily ever! But there were lots of cute babies to watch in their Sunday finery.
After mass, I made a dress, which you can see me in here: (actually, I just sewed an old skirt that was an awkward length to a turtle neck).


Later that night we had a family get-together with David's extended family. We had a plethora of desserts, but I focused my attention on the outstanding wild rice pilaf and peppermint ice cream (yes, I passed up macadamia nut cheesecake for a scoop of pink ice cream. I just adore the stuff!).
We were supposed to have my family over the next day for a little party but my dad called late Christmas night and canceled. Unfortunately, they call and cancel last minute a lot so I wasn't too surprised - but I was disappointed. Instead David and I decided to spend the weekend in Bay St Louis to get some time together. The in-laws' house was all decorated for the holidays.


We watched some football and rode around the neighborhood on my in-laws' touring bikes - which was fun! The weather was cold but beautiful. Sunday morning I ran a great 8.5 miles using Map My Run to find a route. It went through the cute downtown, across the tall Bay Bridge (major hill work there!), and along the beach. It was kind of rough running up the elevated bridge on the way back because the wind was so strong. Actually a got a bad face chapping! But it was a fabulous run and I got to use my new ipod armband from the hubby. The old one - yes I know this is gross - REEKED of sweat. I washed that thing in ammonia and it didn't help! Plus it was all stretched out. So this time, no ipod-around-the-elbow syndrome.

Oh and the Saints have me completely disgusted.

So how was your Christmas...and what was your favorite gift?