Belated Christmas antics

So Baros and I were super delayed on Christmas antics this year.  We did not decorate our tree until the Saturday before Christmas.  Now, we could say that we were waiting for Baros' brother to arrive since he arrived on that Saturday... but no, we just got busy and ran out of time.

We made time when Burak arrived to stay with us!  It was really fun setting it up.  We used our blue ornaments from last year but we got a new little tree since our white one from last year got super discolored from the sunlight.

Our tree is beautiful and we've added some new ornaments from the mamma bear.

For Christmas itself, I had to get up for work like usual.  So I left at 6:40 in the morning for a half day of hectic! It was a quiet, yet busy day and then I made a mad dash to the train station to meet the boys to get to mom's.

We arrived by just around 5 and had a feast.

Mom ordered and made food.  She's so Italian sometimes.  As far as I know, all Italians know how to feast.  In fact, it's an important part of our genetics.

Our original Christmas feast was supposed to be 6 people (Mom, my brother, my brother's girlfriend, Baros, Burak and me).  So my mom ordered enough food for 15 people and still cooked additional food... because you know, my brother, my husband and my brother-in-law all eat for 2 people...

So needless to say, I cracked up when we decided to invite another couple of friends and my mother panicked.  Because even with 9 people... apparently the food for 15+ wouldn't be enough.  The restaurant even gave my mom 30 rolls so it's not like we were lacking food.

Mom just wanted to make sure everyone had enough to eat...  It's part of her genetics to want to overfeed people.

One of mom's friends joined us for dinner and my friends Angela and Evan also joined. Andrea joined us for Christmas day.

Of all of the food, we only got through the appetizers and first course. We didn't even get to try the second course.

Appetizers:

• Cheese
• Pepperoni, salami, prosciutto
• Hummus 
• Salad
• Olives 
• Other appetizer food that I can't remember

First Course:

• Mussels fra diavolo 
• Pasta with shrimp and tomato sauce
• Manicotti
• Fried Fish

Second Course: 

• Chicken Francese 
• Spinach 
• Eggplant Parmigiana

I think there was more food but I can't remember.  

There was so much food that we barely made a dent.  We finished a lot of the appetizers and made a minor dent in the first course.  

We gave up and did not touch the second course because there were also 3 pies for dessert!  

Oh man, we were all in food coma.  

So, my mom's worry was needless.  We didn't even have to worry about the Christmas day meal because there were so many leftovers.  We had the same amount of people and we could just have eaten the leftovers.  

Instead, Evan (a professional chef and friend) made a roast (that mom had wanted to make but we convinced her to let the chef cook), spinach pie, zucchini pie and various other sides, in addition to the leftovers. 

That was our second amazing, crazy meal in two days.  

So mom successfully stuffed everyone.  

We ate our weight in food those two days.  And we still had plenty to eat the next day.  

Our trip was great and relaxing.  We took silly pictures and exchanged gifts early in the morning.  

Baros, Burak and I stayed an extra day and went shopping down by mom.  Then we headed home in the afternoon to relax before I had to head to work.