Merry (10 Minutes Belated) Christmas :)

Words from Umma Nelly:It's about 10 minutes pass the actual Christmas "date" and I am wide A W A K E. I'm just enjoying the Christmas tree and also my AMAZING Christmas present from my BEYOND AMAZING husband, my brand new spanking 40 in TV! LOVE IT.


I adore the new family traditions that my new little family creates from season to season. They always bring me smiles...lots of them. I love reminiscing about my childhood memories from Christmas time. I love incorporating what my parents did for my siblings and me for my own family, now. Matthew and I try our best to create good, solid memories for our son and pray that he'll one day smile about all the holiday traditions. Maybe he'll pass some onto his own little family...one day.


Last year, I was determined to cook a turkey for Christmas Eve dinner. Yeah, the one who catches kitchens on fire wanted to cook a turkey. I remember following everything my mom said over the phone and praying, "Oh God, please don't let anyone get sick." It went better than expected, and it made me feel a little more braver for this Christmas.


This time, I decided to STUFF the turkey! Oh yeah, baby!!! My sister-in-law loves to stuff her turkey with oranges, lemons, celery and onions with a homemade butter rub. I decided to follow her instructions and made her write out some "detailed" instructions.


I was ready to hit the grocery store. Praise the Lord for my in-laws who love watching Josiah! I was able to buckle down and do some serious grocery shopping. Okay, I only needed the oranges, lemons and celery...and some seasonings.  I was very careful with my selections and when I got to the produce section, I grab some oranges and was happy that they seemed to be pretty big. Got a few things here and there and I was ready to go home to my poor, little sick boy who developed croup.


Christmas Eve, we went to the in-laws and let Josiah open his presents and opened our stockings. It was relaxing and just enjoyable. It was perfect. It was getting late and I wanted to go home and bake Jesus birthday cake and get the turkey ready so all I had to do was pop it in the oven in the morning.


That did NOT happen...


Instead, I realized we didn't have anymore eggs since I used them up to make a nice french toast breakfast for my family. So, no birthday cake for Jesus... (No worries, Jesus got a pumpkin pie instead, thanks to Linda!) Then, I started to read to the directions for the turkey... And it said in nice big letters, "DO NOT STUFF THE TURKEY THE NIGHT BEFORE." Awesome. My top-notch husband offered to at least cut up the veggies and fruits, while I wrapped the rest of the presents.


While I was wrapping the presents, Matthew came out and said, "Babe, you know you got grapefruit, right?" My reaction, "are you serious? NO!" I checked those suckers to make sure that I didn't get the grapefruit. Look how well that played out for me. Those "really big oranges" went from amazing to crap. I was not made to cook.


I'm sorry if you had to work on Christmas. I'm even more sorry if you work at a grocery store and you had to work on Christmas. It's because of people like me who does the dumbest things. Matthew was able to get the right oranges, just in time for the big turkey.


You would think one who made a turkey last year would remember this year. No, I still had to call my mom cause I couldn't remember if I had to rip off those weird looking parts or if I left that plastic clamp on it. Last year, I ripped off the weird looking part and found out that this year it is actually supposed to stay there and helps keep the stuffing in it. I even asked my mom, how do I know if the turkey is right side up because last year, I put it in there the wrong way. Awesome. I know.


The turkey came out just fine. It smelled great and looked pretty good.


While we were eating dinner, I realized that I totally forgot to make the stuffing to eat on the side. Awesome. Oh well, Linda cooked plenty of delicious sides! Later on, I went to the pantry to grab some forks for pie and I saw the two jars of gravy sitting there. Waiting. Yep, I forgot to "cook" the gravy as well! Even better. I was responsible for cooking the turkey, the stuffing and the gravy. Yep, little chef here only remembered the turkey. I would never make it on "Hell's Kitchen". Never.


Christmas was awesome. I even got to talk to Mama Brittany while trying to get dressed for church, which I never made it. Matthew and Josiah were already staying home since Josiah was getting over croup, and I was going to come home when I was no longer needed in Kid's Church. Josiah wasn't too big into opening his gifts. It took him like two hours to open just three presents, no exaggeration there. He still has a good size pile left. Last year, we celebrated Christmas for about a month. It took him forever to open his gifts! I thought he was going to rip open his presents and really get into it. Nope. He was more amused with the blocks that he already had. :)


I guess Josiah can celebrate Hanukkah.

Christmas was awesome and now it's over....

It's always exciting and full of "adventures". Sometimes, the mishaps are what make the memories so good.  :)

Amen.