djKlaassen: all is calm; all is bright.

Christmas this year was really quiet ... just out little family and Justin's parents. And is was great.

A tradition in Justin's family (from German heritage) is to have 'candy bowls' - this year we had traditional German bowls sent to us from relatives in Germany. The tradition has evolved in our family so that each year, a different family member goes shopping with Menno to buy the candy ... trying to get a little bit of everyone's favorites, and always on the lookout for new treats to include. Each person gets their own bowl with a little bit of everything; and it's your bowl of treats for snacking on over the holiday. It was my year to go shopping. We found the bulk of our treats at Carol's Sweets - pretty fun to bring literally a few dozen jars of candy down from the shelves and stack them at the till to start making little baggies!!

We started off the day with Christmas brunch - Lee's amazing Eggs Benedict. SO GOOD.

Christmas dinner - we had prepped as much as we could in advance. Good thing! In trying to pull dinner together we managed to:

1) forget to plug in the roaster! Thankfully Baba noticed we couldn't smell turkey yet and we managed to plug it in time to still eat!

2) boil a pan dry whilst steaming vegetables.

3) almost forget to cook the brussel sprouts.

4) spill over the scalloped corn in the oven leading to a messy oven, and a smokey house.

We pulled it all together in the end though ... and it was DELICIOUS.

We opened stockings before naptime, and presents afterward. And did a lot of just hanging out and visiting (and picking at our candy bowls!). We had a great time watching each other open gifts - so fun to try and find just the right things for each other. But of course, taking the time to spend the day together and really enjoy each other's company and be thankful for having each other, and having wonderful (and plentiful) food was the best.