Our Home this Christmas

This Christmas, my parents drove to North Carolina from Maine, and my sister flew in from San Diego.

We went to see the Nutcracker in Raleigh.  When I was young, I took ballet and danced in The Nutcracker, so I love it.  Tommie humors me, but his eyes glaze over after the first dance, so it was nice to have my family there too--slightly less glazed.

We had Christmas dinner (ham and the works) in our new dining room.  

We took a two-day trip to Wilmington, NC so my sister and I could take embarrassing photographs with cutout heads from Dawson's Creek in popular filming locations.

We laughed, we fought, we ate lots of food, took lots of pictures, and watched Christmas movies.  We exposed my sister to "life-changing" chicken and waffles.  My sister and I exposed my mom to the movie Magic Mike (that's not a Christmas movie?)  We also started a bunch of new house projects with help from my dad (still in the works).

This Christmas, we were all together, which is something we haven't done in years.

Little Living Tree

We've been hustling to finish painting the dining room just in time for the holidays; speaking of holidays, this Norfolk Island Pine is our tree this year.  We usually don't have a tree at all (you know, trying to "save" the environment and all) but since we're hosting Christmas at our place this year, we felt like we had to do some decorating.

The small potted pine was under $20 at Lowes, and since it's alive, we know it will last even beyond the holiday.

Outside, we wrapped white lights around the front porch rails.  I love how they light up the boxes under the roof and kind of want to keep them up year round.  Just like the rest of the house, we have years to grow into our full-on holiday decorating potential.

Thanksgiving Lamb

We celebrated our first holiday meal in our house--Thanksgiving with Tommie's parents (and cat).

We collaborated on cooking non-traditional lamb (who says we all have to pick on turkeys?) with traditional Thanksgiving sides like stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, and homemade pumpkin pie.

Even though our dining room is a work-in-progress, our Craigslisted table and chairs serve us well for the holidays.  Next up; Christmas with my side of the family.