Recap!

Spending time with my family over Christmas was awesome. It was great having them down for our first married Christmas!

They arrived Thursday afternoon, just in time to watch the Steeler game as a whole family = awesome. Steeler's won 27-3 so it was a perfect way to begin the Christmas celebrations!

Friday was my brother's birthday a.k.a. Christmas Eve. My mom and I ran some last minute errands that morning then came back to get ready for Christmas Eve/Mick's birthday dinner. Usually, Italians will do a huge feast mainly of seafood and fish, but because my brother isn't a fan of creatures that swim and my dad has some health restrictions these days, I cooked my spin on a penne arriabiata (adding some sweet chili sauce and sun dried tomatoes) which is one of my brother's fav dishes of mine and my mom cooked linguine with clam sauce to keep in the Italian tradition.

Christmas day was nice too. Not good because my mom and dad both started coming down with something but we got to celebrate it together and we all got spoilt with presents so that's always an upside! Michael got me SO many goodies. A new Michael Kors watch, Frye boots, a sweater, a Dogearred necklace, Juicy scarf, baking stuff, and awesome stocking stuffers! My family got me the silver TOMS I wanted, Juicy mittens, clothes and a Target gift card! My Brother was pumped on his new True Religion jeans and a laptop, my Mom loved her Ann Taylor stuff and iPad, Dad loved all his Steelers gear and universal remote, and Michael got spoiled with a shiatsu back massager, shoes, Ugg slippers, clothes, Apple TV, the new Madden game, a new lap timer for at the track, Laker's gear and lots more.

I finally learned how to cook my grandma's recipe for Italian wedding soup. And, oh boy, it was yummy! Still enjoying the leftovers right now! MmmmmMmm!

For Christmas dinner we had the wedding soup, sauteed broccoli, sweet potato casserole (I personally think mine is WAY better than Ruth Chris'), baked ham with pineapple and for dessert lots and lots of cookies.

Our first married Christmas

The day before my family left we decided it was now or never to take my brother to Islands of Adventure to see the World of Harry Potter. O. M. G. Did we pick the worst/busiest day of the year to go. My dad still wasn't feeling up to par so opted to say home, and I was so glad he did when we were already 2 hours deep into waiting in line just to get into Hogsmeade. I mean, seriously, us and thousands of others spent our day just waiting and waiting. Looking back, we were nuts. Luckily we did 2 rides before hand so the day wasn't absolutely wasted. Spiderman was awesome and so was Shrek 4D.

After the brutal, and I'm not exaggerating with brutal, 4 hours (freezing our bums off) waiting in line we finally got in. No joke, it's like you step right into the frickin' movie. It was awesome. I wouldn't say totally worth the wait... but it'll be a memory we'll never forget. The wuss in me even had enough guts to go on the "Dragon Challenge" roller coaster for Michael's sake. I guess I owed it to him to not make him ride it alone after waiting in line that long. Cried the whole time.

Will post more pics tomorrow when I catch up on the Blog Challenge. I'm sick - that's my excuse!