Christmas 2010: Corsetti Edition

This Christmas began with a bit of sadness as my boss and pastor passed away unexpectedly from complications of leukemia.  I spent most of the week preceeing Christmas at work helping set up the funeral receptions and photo gallery.  Selfishly I needed to be working to help myself cope with the loss in a hands on way.  It was good to laugh and cry with my coworkers all week.  The funeral was beautiful, the receptions were healing, and going to the burial was just the closure that I needed.

My family was so patient with me and understood I needed a low-key Christmas and we had just that.

Christmas in the Corsetti Family usually is it's own Octave of events.  This year was no different, however it was more spread out, which made it feel less hectic than usual.

The events started the week before Christmas with Christmas dinner at my parents.  David and Paige were in town so they opened their presents, we exchanged sibling gifts, opened stockings, and gave my parents a Flip Video camera.  We had a big dinner, played cards and shared many laughs from the year.

Mom's beautiful Christmas dinner table

That night we toasted a shot of Irish Cream in Waterford in honor of Monsignor Reynolds (and my grandfather whose birthday it would have been).

The next day we went to my grandparents for Christmas brunch.  In the past we've done a big dinner, but this year we had a breakfast party followed by stockings from my grandparents, cousin gifts, and of course our birthday cake for baby Jesus.  The party continued well into the night, and we even went over to Sam's house after Mass & Life Teen / EDGE to finishing playing cards with Katie and Jackie.

A week went by without any Christmas events.  How unusual!

For Christmas Eve we had all the extended Sander family over for our traditional appetizer and dessert party.  We used to do cousin gifts that night, but since David, Paige & Jackie were in town for the brunch, we did them early this year.  It helped the night move along quickly, and as a result all of us made it to 9 pm Christmas Eve Mass.  Again, a little different from years past when we'd split up and do 9 and/or midnight Mass.  As much as I missed midnight Mass, I was so emotionally exhausted from losing Monsignor, that it was nice to do a more casual Mass and to be surrounded by my entire family.

The next day Eric and I celebrated our own little Christmas.  We agreed on a very small budget this year because our big gift was paying off my car.  Eric bought me tickets to the Monster Truck Jam (yes!) and to see West Side Story.  And I bought him a new bike jersey and some Christmas legos.

The snowman had the BEST broom of all the snowman sets he has. haha

After, we spent the day in our PJs at my parents house.  We had a delicious breakfast full of carb heavy, fat laden, sugary treats, like cheese eggs, grits casserole, french toast, and monkey bread.  YUM! The afternoon was spent casually exchanging gifts and opening surprises from Santa.

BULLDOZERS

Yes, Spike got a puffy vest.

And then....

The snow came!  And kept on coming!  We had almost 2 inches of snow.  The first White Christmas in Atlanta since 1881 or 1886 (depending which news cast you listened to).

The day finished out with a quick visit from Connor and Deirdre and a Christmas puzzle.  I helped dad get some things set up on the computer and we all putsed around with our Christmas gifts.  Somewhere around 5pm we packed up our toys and went home to pack for Vieques....and Christmas with the Buerglers (to be continued!)