Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve and we’re packing up to hit the road. We don’t travel too far – just a couple of hours to Teacher Man’s family later today and then on Christmas Day, we head to my parents’ farm, another three hours or so. On Friday, we will eventually wind our way back home.

It’s a whirlwind Christmas road trip but always worth it. We’re blessed to have lots of family reasonably close by and couldn’t imagine Christmas any other way.

Teacher Man, Joe and I had our own little Christmas celebration last night. The weather has been unseasonably warm the past couple of weeks here in Minnesota (and no snow either!) so we enjoyed New York strip steaks on the grill, mashed potatoes and the most amazing burgundy mushrooms recipe from one of my favorites, The Pioneer Woman. I was a little skeptical about a recipe that calls for the mushrooms to simmer for 9 hours, actually. But we adjusted it a little, cooked the mushrooms for 8 hours on low in the crockpot, and then simmered them another hour on the stove. They were fabulous! (Might have been the 1/2 quart of red wine in there, come to think of it.)

I don’t know why I doubted The Pioneer Woman. I can’t think of the last time one of her recipes failed me.

But I digress … after the meal, we opened up our gifts and I think it’s safe to say Joe was pretty excited about the Xbox 360 he received. That is the one gift on his list that he wanted most of all.

Teacher Man is currently into wearing different watches, so he was pleased with the watch Joe picked out for him.

And I was thrilled with a couple of lovely tunics I received from Teacher Man (I’m really into tunics, for some reason?) as well as new headphones for when I run, some funky animal print socks and the sweetest card ever from Joe.

So now we’re almost off, along with my favorite turkey roll-ups appetizer, a veggie tray, 5 pans of cinnamon rolls, and a box full of wine packed up. (You didn’t think I’d forget the wine, did you?)

And Earl the pug. We couldn’t forget Earl – although his anxiety level is heightened, as he much prefers staying at his own house and napping 20 hours a day. Ah, the life of a 14-year-old senior citizen pug.

As we head out the door, Teacher Man, Joe and I wish for you the merriest of holidays and may you savor the special moments of the next few days.

I know I will.

Merry Christmas!

– Lara