Barbies, Poker, Midnightini's and Tears...

Christmas was pretty nice. We had a quiet one this year. A bit somber, very emotional. I personally had a very hard time on Christmas day. I cried through most of it. I miss my Mother so deeply, so desperately it hurts more than you could imagine. I miss my brother too. I have tried to surround myself with friends and family as much as possible. To be left alone with my thoughts only tends to feed into my depression and makes it worse. That's not to say that I don't think about her every 5 minutes. I surely do. It just makes it easier for me to not get mired down with all the feelings that come to me while I'm alone. Guilt, sadness, longing, anguish. All are I'm sure, just normal mourning symptoms that I must go through. It's just hard. My friends and family have been A+ supportive and wonderful. I'm so blessed to have them in my life.

Which brings us to the happy things that have happened this holiday. The good memories that were made! Christmas Eve Eve, we had several of our friends over for a little Christmas cheer and games! We played Celebrity (our L.A. version of Charades) and shared in great quantities of food and drinks. Speaking of drinks, my dear friend and sis, Bonnie came armed with all the fixin's for a cool new drink called the Midnightini. It's vodka, cranberry juice and champagne. Served chilled and straight up in a martini glass. Absolutely scrumptious! My new favorite drink! Our friends the Lindsay's brought a TON of delicious food! And we also enjoyed the company of good friends, Kathi, Weston, Eric, Robin, Marc, Rose and Keith. Aleta, Homer and David brought gifts for everyone! We got a coffee machine!!! I haven't been able to make coffee since we moved into our new home. Let me tell you... that was a delicious cup of coffee that next morning!!!

Christmas Eve was was spent shopping with Mike and Ashley. We had so much fun grabbing up everything we could for Maddie and Sean and loving the fact that so much stuff was on sale! The biggest delight? No batteries or assembly required this year!!! YAY! Well except for Maddie's LeapPad. Which we happily supplied for that since it's a great educational tool. And, her favorite present. She has hardly put it down. So what else do you get a 3 year old who already has plenty of toys and is the sister and daughter of actresses? Why dress up clothes of course! So we bought lots of princess costumes, slippers, purses, tiaras, feather boas and a tea set! She was very happy! My Mother would have relished in watching Maddie squeal with delight at every present she opened on Christmas morning.

Christmas Day we had friends over. Sean received a few games for Christmas and so everyone had to break them in! It started with a little chess, went to Risk-Lord Of The Rings Edition and culminated in a great couple of rounds of poker with our new set, chips, felt and cards with shoe! Mike cleaned everyone out! Our friend Roger stayed 2 days as did Brad and we had a giant breakfast the next day! Oh! And Roger brought a kitty home with him!

The day after Christmas we were invited to our friends the Lindsay's for a Day After Christmas Feast! It was a lovely time in a very intimate and quiet atmosphere. A very nice ending to a beautiful Christmas weekend.

I hope your Holiday, however you celebrate it, was as beautiful and memorable as you hoped it would be!