Of Christmas and Wisdom Teeth

We've had a wonderful Christmas season. Matt's work Xmas party was at Max Stein's Steakhouse. The steak was delicious, and the room chosen had a huge projector screen, which the gang hooked up XBox 360 to and played Rock Band all evening! My work Xmas party was held at the Society, and was catered by Vinny T's and had a string quartet playing holiday songs, which was fun. The family reunion was a blast to see everyone (although I missed my dear Daleys!), especially little Jessica - not quite so little as the last time I saw her!

For Christmas Matt & I continued a mini-tradition we started last year - roasting chestnuts (we don't have an open fire, but carving X's in the shells make them roast quite well, then serve with butter and cinnamon sugar or sea salt), and Terry Pratchett's Hogfather was playing on TV, as well as the beloved A Christmas Story, which Matt had never seen!

Christmas morning we opened our gifts - an abundance of history books, scifi books, Tim Burton, Elizabeth Peters, Neil Gaiman, VeggieTales, Nintendo DS and video games, Mel Brooks, For Better or For Worse, etc!

Then we headed over to Carver and got to see all the kids goodies. Mom & Jamie made delicious appetizers, Joe showed off his iDog, Nikki wore her Aeropostale pjs, Julie & Corey showed off their electronic stuff, Tim his Sudoku, Dad his Beatles collection, and Mom her new video camera. We then went over to Hanover and got to see the Sironi's, including Jeff who was home from LA. It was inadvertently a penguin-themed - we gave Chris Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, and a singing penguin Hallmark card, and he gave us a set of stuffed animal penguins!


After Christmas, I met up with Momoko, Jojo, and Sara in Boston for a Brownie reunion. Coming from DC, Nova Scotia, and Texas, it was wonderful to have a chance to catch up with everyone and spend the day together.

Then last Friday I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed -ack! The surgery was quick, and there were no complications [nice, but it still hurts like a son of a gun!]. I spent most of the weekend sleeping, with large ice packs on my face.


My mouth, while still hurting, is feeling a lot better, and tonight we are having a New Years party with the gang - luckily it has stopped snowing!

Here's to 2008!

Christmas decorating

Today we went to the Greenwood Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We picked out our tree last year from a flower stand on 3A, and the tree didn't last long, dropping its needles everywhere, and drying out too fast. So we thought it would be fun this year to go to our local tree farm. They have several fields of trees which they rotate each year. Their trees generally grow for 5-6 years. You grab a saw and go out, pick your tree, chop it down, and bring it to your car! Plus they had a neat little farm stand with apple cider, farm-made honey, and a variety of Christmas wreaths and centerpieces for sale. We picked our tree and a nice small wreath. The farm was really neat, it's on a huge piece of property along Dudley Road, which spread back near the Concord River and the famous historical "Two Brother's Rocks", which served as landmarks in the 17th century for John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley when they marked the boundaries of their properties.

We set up the tree, then grabbed lunch at the Border Cafe, for a Mexican Christmas fiesta.

Then we had fun pulling out all the ornaments and decorating the tree. Our ornament collection is filled with a fun collection of old and new.

Here's Mary's tooth-brushing Santa from 1985:


Here's Matt's teddy bear glass ornament from the 1980s:


We also received several "Our first Christmas" ornaments for our engagement in '05 and our wedding in '06. Last year we bought a variety of bulbs and other ornaments to fill out the tree. This year, I bought Matt two Hallmark ornaments from Pixar's Cars and Ratatouille.

Here's our Hilton Head Lighthouse from our honeymoon:


And here are some of our kitchen decorations: