Christmas Presents

Every year Leigh and I promise ourselves we will wait for the actual holiday to open our Christmas presents. Every year we fail. In fact, there was one year when we opened our gifts on December 15! Ridiculous, I know. You would think we were children. In our defense we have typically had multiple Christmases because we lived far from our parents. Each year we would typically open our gifts ridiculously early (usually in a moment of stress or winter blues due to final exams, etc), then travel to both of our families houses over the course of our Christmas break. Since we dont' have children there's never been a distinct need to wait until Christmas day to open gifts.

This year we made it until December 19, a record so far for us. We cleaned the apartment, cooked dinner then opened gifts while we watched a movie. It was really fun! Leigh was very pleased with her gifts, which included 3 new Vonnegut novels, 3 pairs of tall Smartwool socks (which have proven very warm and comfy), new pajamas, a sweatshirt, and some other odds and ends. I also got her a gift card to Gap for the after Christmas sale madness so she can stock up on work clothes for her new job. I was utterly spoiled with two new skirts from Anthropologie (one is PURPLE and the other has RUFFLES!), sweaters, lots of new books (two of them in French!), pajamas and some other lovely odds and ends I wouldn't normally buy for myself. I am so pleased and feel the distinct urge to cut my work day short to go home and start a new book (but I won't do that!). Instead I can just enjoy the new skirt and cute argyle tights that I'm wearing :-)

Now I bet you're wondering how we plan to celebrate our actual Christmas after this early day of gluttony. Well, we are having a "French Christmas." I don't mean we are going to cook dishes typical of a French family's Christmas. Instead we are going to indulge in some of our favorite French foods for Christmas. Because it's a holiday we will have a ham, of course, some baked brie, veggies, baguette and the like. We are also going to make Leigh's mother's chocolate eclaire cake recipe. OK, that's not really French but it is French-inspired and one of our favorite desserts so it counts! Basically we plan to spend Christmas Eve cooking and enjoying a day at home indulging in our favorite food memories from our time in Europe. This will certainly include a lot of wine.

Then, around midnight, I have to take Leigh to the airport to catch a 2:00am flight toward the East Coast so she can spend the four following days with her family. I will miss her greatly, but am fortunate enough to have a really good friend here in Anchorage to enjoy Christmas Day with (which, again, will consist of lots of yummy food and wine and giving presents to my friend's 5-year-old boy- too cute!).

So those are my/our plans. Next year we'll do something much bigger, but for now this will do just fine. In the meantime, I should really get back to work!