Christmas 2008

Well, it's Jan. 1, 2009 as I write this and the long holiday season is over. It was the same as always: Lots of fun, too much food and over too soon. Pretty hectic, too.

Christmas Eve is always tough for us because both Jim's family and Kerri's family celebrate it in a big way. Because Kerri's family also gets together on Christmas Day and Jim's doesn't, we spend most of the night with Jim's family.

Here was our routine for Christmas Eve:

3 p.m. Arrived at Kerri's parents' house in Irondequoit and hung out until it was time to head to mass at St. Salome, the church where we were married in 2003.

4 p.m. Mass. Matty is happy but fidgety, and Kerri spends most of the service in the back of the church hanging out with him.

5 p.m. Back to Kerri's parents, where we indulge in one appetizer after another. For a little while, anyway.

6 p.m. We head to Penfield for an evening with the Mandelaros. For nearly two decades, the hosts were Butch and MaryLou Mandelaro, Jim's brother and sister-in-law. But when they sold their house in 2007, Jim's other brother (Doug) and sister-in-law (Terry) took over.

Jim loves the fried fish MaryLou prepares every Christmas Eve. It's the only day each year he gets this treat. They also served potatoes for 100, stuffed shells, chicken, rolls, salad and other great food. After dinner we opened presents.

We do the "Secret Santa" thing with both families. This year, Jim bought for Terry and received from Doug. And Kerri bought for Doug and received from Barb.

Matty was in a great mood and hung out with Cousin Julie and Uncle Butch.

We left around midnight, and had lots of fun. Matty fell asleep in the car and we took him straight to bed. Then we spent more time putting his train tracks together - the one Santa got for him. It was 1:30 a.m. before we crashed.

We woke up at 7:30 Christmas morning and opened our gifts while Matty slept. He loved his train set and something called Clippo (it's like Leggos).

Matty learned many Christmas songs this season, especially Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. We watched Rudolph's TV special around 20 times (literally).

We spent Christmas Day at Kerri's parents' house. My mom and sister came over, too, so Matty was surrounded by family. It was fun, and relaxing.

The next several days were a whirlwind. My birthday is Dec. 27, but that also was the day of the annual "Hayden Party" (my mother-in-law's side of the family). So 75 people converged on my sister-in-law Julie's house in Irondequoit. Kerri was sweet enough to get me a cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me. Matty sang the loudest, and out of all the "Dear Jims," I heard this little voice say "Dear Dada." Music to my ears.

New Year's Eve was quiet. Too quiet. We stayed home and had my mom ("Mimi") over. Next year we'll mix it up and maybe go out to dinner. New Year's Day was laidback, too, as we went to Kerri's parents again.

The Christmas season is over now, and we're having our worst winter in six years (and just had our snowiest December ever). It's back to work now, but that's life. Hard to complain when you have so much going for you.

Happy New Year to all!