12.25.06

Our favorite Christmas 2006 memories:

• Singing Christmas carols at God's Acre with the New Canaan community on Christmas Eve. About a thousand people get together, holding candles & singing traditional carols while the town band accompanies. This is a very New England tradition, taking place in an area of town that happens to have about 6 churches. It was really special to see how the town unites each Christmas Eve.
• Incorporating Hudson family traditions into the Whiting home: crepes for breakfast (filled with peaches, yogurt, powdered sugar & whipped cream) & Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider with dinner
• Cooking. Lots & lots of cooking. I made Breakfast Strata, White Bean Chili & Cornbread, Crepes, Ravioli with Tomato Cream Sauce, Raspberry Jello, Two Potato Gratin with Gruyere cheese, Thanksgiving Salad with Pomegranates, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Brown Sugared Carrots, Grilled Asparagus, and Cream Cheese Orange Crescent Rolls among other things. I'm tired!! All the "kids" helped me out with this massive undertaking which made it more fun, but it was still exhausting and left little room to relax. It was my first "event" and the experience was fun. I now understand how my mom felt for all of those years, cooking for seven kids & standing at the stove while we all ate.
• Talking to my brother Andrew on the phone. He's serving a mission for our church and I haven't talked to him since he left in May. He is doing really well & it was obvious that he has had a tremendous amount of growth since I last talked to him. I'm so proud of him.
• My mother in law & sister in law made me a Christmas stocking to match theirs. It was a very sweet gesture of inclusion. My husband's family has always been very sweet to me- especially Mike's siblings, who have become just like younger brothers & a sister to me. They are great.
• I sang in the Christmas choir in the New Canaan ward. We sang two particularly beautiful songs (On This Day, Children Sing & The First Noel), directed by my mother in law. This involved two very early morning practices Saturday & Sunday, but I enjoyed being involved & feeling a part of my adopted ward.
• Eating dinner at Mike's boss's house on Saturday. We had a very interesting mixture of Portuguese & Afghani food. It was a bit of an odd combination (think lamb, mint & codfish)
• Eating Chocolate Babka, a now-traditional (2nd year in a row) gift from Mike's boss
• Listening to Christmas music non-stop. I have a great selection on my IPod.
• Having a reason to celebrate. We are grateful for our faith, family & friends.