Snowed In

I had full intentions to post a Christmas Eve and Christmas recap yesterday, but I had one problem - we were snowed in!  "Stuck" at my parents house with no laptop.  It was glorious.  We spent all day by the fire, reading, watching football, making chili, and drinking wine.  Sometimes doing nothing is so luxurious!  


I have some beautiful pictures of the first white Christmas I've ever seen, but unfortunately they are on my new Nikon d3100, and the card reader I have currently does not support the memory card that I have in the new camera.  I have no time today but first thing tomorrow I'm running out to Wolf Camera to get a new reader!  For now I'll post pictures of Christmas Eve/Christmas morning (pics were captured on my point and shoot, not the new camera) and then do a Christmas afternoon and following days recap tomorrow.


Rewind several days to Christmas Eve.  John and I spent about an hour at the gym in the morning, which I was surprised to see was packed - I guess everyone had the same idea we did, which was to burn it off before we planned to indulge for the next several days!  After working out, we cleaned, prepped, cooked, and went to church at 3:00.  We  then came home and hosted our "second annual" Christmas Eve dinner.  Guests this year included my parents, my brother Tim, John's mom, and his brother and sister, Wes and Sarah. 


Here was our menu:

I didn't get shots of everything we made, but I did get a few, as well as a shot of my table setting.  I get so excited the few times of year that I get to use my china!

Table Setting

Bacon wrapped blue cheese stuffed dates, cranberry cheddar cheese and crackers.

The best mac and cheese ever - will require a separate post to do it justice!

Peppermint Cheesecake

I have to say, our Christmas Eve menu and dinner party was a huge success!  John seasoned and cooked the beef perfectly for the second year in a row, and the company was amazing.  We are so lucky to not only have two families in Atlanta, but that everyone gets along so well.


Christmas morning we woke up, wrapped a few last minute gifts, and went straight over to John's mom's house.  I love our Christmas tradition of doing presents and breakfast with John's family, and then more presents and dinner at my parents' house.  Kathy made her traditional "breakfast dish" (that's what the kids have always called it!) which is a sausage and egg casserole.  Complete with grits and English muffins.

We ate breakfast and then opened lots of presents!  My in laws are too good to me, they really treat me like the 4th child in their family.  Love them!  Here are some shots from the morning.

Christmas morning at the Bennetts!

Max and Bella in their Christmas sweaters

Bennett siblings!  (Sarah and I were sporting our new matching hats).
  

After presents, it was around noon and word of the snow coming through Atlanta started to spread (via frantic text messages from my mom, who lives 45 minutes north of the city).  John and I raced home to grab Sam, load up the car with gifts and overnight bags, and made it up to Alpharetta by about 2.  Just in time to see snow on the ground with big fat flakes falling down as we made our way up my parents driveway.   It was breathtaking.  I can't wait to share pictures tomorrow!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is still enjoying time with loved ones.  John and I are cleaning up our house and getting ready to go to Ted's Montana grill and then the Falcons/Saints game tonight with my family - it's going to be a crazy game!