Secret Santa #2 & Christmas Recap

A little while ago, I signed up for the Secret Santa Swap that Paige from Eloping Stethoscope hosted. Today is the day that we reveal what we got. Sadly, I have yet to receive my package, so I can't show what I got.

I got to play Secret Santa to Karen over at Ramblings of an Otter Wifey.

Head over to Karen's blog to see what she got!

The second part of this link up was to do a Christmas recap. I did take a lot of pictures, but failed to bring the cord needed to upload the pictures from my camera to my computer. 

I started Christmas celebrations Christmas Eve, with meeting my longest friend (20+ years!) for breakfast followed by meeting two high school friends for lunch. They had lunch, I had iced tea, as I had just come from breakfast.

Later, that evening my family headed to my grandmother's house for hors d'oeuvres. My uncle and one cousin were there, my other cousin was missed, but she was in Toronto. We took our annual cousin Christmas picture. Afterwards we went to my other grandparents house for a visit before heading home. 

Once home, my dad and brother started cooking dinner, which was really just seafood (yuck) and I took the opportunity to wrap some presents before heading out to a friends' house. I've spent Christmas Eve with her family for years. We exchanged gifts (chocolate and shower gel from her, Tim Hortons gift card from her parents, and Candy Cane Mudslide from a family friend) and had dinner. Add in laughter and it was the perfect night!

I went home around midnight, had a visit with my dad and sister before finishing wrapping my gifts. After my gifts were wrapped and under the tree, I helped my dad/Santa and filled the stockings.

As a Roman Catholic, we went to 9am Mass and celebrated the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

After Church, we went home and did some some stuff (make coffee, etc) before opening gifts. We always start with our stockings before moving on to actual presents. 

Some of the things I got:

• Stuff for my apartment (I made a list on Bed Bath & Beyond for my parents)- slow cooker, dust buster, door mat, silverware, coasters, lamp, etc
• Starbucks gift certificate
• Movie pass, including popcorn, for two
• Pomegranate tree (well, the seeds to grow a tree)
• iTunes gift card
• Cash

Around 1, my extended family (both sides, minus the uncle and cousin from Christmas Eve) came over. We had soup, salad, crepes, steak, chicken, potatoes, peas & mushrooms, stuffing, cheesecake, tiramisu, cookies...and I think that's it. And Christmas crackers!

After everyone left, we had some down time before going to my grandma's to open presents. We then headed home, to watch The Big Bang Theory marathon. It was an early night because we (dad, sister and I) would be up at 4am to watch Canada play Germany in their opening game of the World Junior Championship.

All is all, it was a great Christmas!