It is a privilege to return to my home state of Connecticut each December for the holidays. There’s no holiday like a New England holiday!

Here are some fun images from our Xmas Eve and Christmas Day. These are more personal and less travel-oriented, but I am excited to share them here.

My 94-year-old Grandma shows off her bling, a gift from my cousin:

A few snapshots from the evening’s festivities:

For Christmas Eve dinner, my mom prepares a yummy buffet of fruit, veggies, chips, and dip.

Plus stuffed clams and crab cakes from the local seafood market.

Before:

After:

We eat in front of the fireplace (which warmed my backside as I snapped this photo), next to the festive Christmas tree. Wine and egg nog pours freely.

My parents’ dog, Bijou, enjoys the warmth of the fire.

Hometown pride:

Here are some more photos of my Grandma because she’s adorable:

My mom baked this Chocolate Jamaican Rum cake for dessert. It’s delicious heated up and topped with a healthy dollop of whipped cream.

Just before I headed off to church for the 11pm service, it started lightly snowing. What a way to ring in Christmas! Good job, New England weather.

The snow stuck around about about fifteen hours.

It’s not exactly a white Christmas, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.

Santa delivered!

Bringing a little Young & Restless pride back east with this Crimson Lights mug.

Also, my mom makes THE BEST white chocolate cranberry scones. (That’s not her exact recipe, but it’s close. She got hers from a B&B on Nantucket.)

Once we are properly caffeinated (and fed — we’re having a big brunch later, but I sneak a scone), we begin to open gifts.

My sister Bethany receives lots of comedy CDs (Louis CK, Maria Bamford, Todd Glass, Paul F. Thompkins, Tig Notaro). She loves comedy. She specifically requested CDs because that’s how she listens to comedy in her car on the way to work. Also, she loves Barry Manilow. That’s weird for a 26-year old girl, right? That’s what I keep telling her.

Among other things, Beth got me a camera stamp and ink pads so I can work on my craft skillz. She also got me the DVD of the musical Company Live at Lincoln Center, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, and Patti LuPone, and more. This is a perfect gift because I saw it in person back in April 2011, and I’m obsessed with Sondheim shows. Don’t judge.

More gift opening! Grandma gets some cute aviary-themed sweaters. My mom and dad open a shell ornament I picked up for them in Maui earlier in the year. (So much time had passed since I purchased it, I’d almost forgotten about it!)

A few more fun shots from Christmas morning…

Beth and I got each other the new Young House Love book (it’s one of my favorite blogs).

The dog is pretty freaking adorable. This is how she spent most of the morning, sitting between me and Grandma:

Brunch time! Major thanks to my Momma for whipping up this array of goodness. She makes it look so easy. I really appreciate the effort she puts into making our holiday meals so special.

I was on bacon duty and IT FULFILLED ALL OF MY CHRISTMAS DREAMS.

Here we are enjoying Christmas brunch:

I spent much of the day “playing” with one of my gifts: theatre ticket stub holders. (Yes, I am a dork.)

Below I organized over fifteen years of tickets into piles. This took me several hours, but it’s a task I’ve been meaning to do for years. It brings a huge smile to my face every time I flip through my old tickets, flooded by memories of experiencing my favorite shows on stage.

That evening we played the game Cards Against Humanity for THREE hours. I think that means we are really, really bad people. The game brought lots of laughter, and words out of my grandmother’s mouth that I can’t unhear… like anal beads, golden shower, and dick fingers. You’re welcome.

(That should get some interesting traffic on my site.)

That wraps up Christmas 2012!

Major thanks to my parents for all the organizing and prep they did to make this holiday (and every holiday) so meaningful. And it meant a lot to spend time with my Grandma! She’s a special lady.