Our life is pretty docile. At the moment Shawn's work is pretty consistent and he is getting home around 3pm everyday, sometimes earlier, which is nice. I am still employed at Mirage Eyewear in Devon but right now am laid off because of shortage of work. Will be returning back to work end of this month sometime. I have had a lot of time to relax, clean the apartment, organize things, think to much, visit my momma and others. It has been good. Shawn got a good chunk of time off of work for this holiday season. He was off just before Christmas Eve and then is going back January 2nd. It has been really nice to have him home during this time and it has actually not gone by really fast, which is awesome!
Shawn's dad Blaine came down on the 22nd of December. His wife Yvonne is in Ireland visiting her family right now and so we invited him to join us in our Christmas festivities and stay in our home as long as he wanted. I love hosting people, even though we are in this little apartment in the 'rougher neck of the woods'. I enjoy the insane cleaning spree that it brings up in me, the whirlwind of a woman I become. It's fun knowing that you are cleaning for a reason. Not just because it should be done. BORING! I love planning the menus for the time they are here, planning the events and things going on. Organizing the times and informing everyone what's happening. I am an organizer, a planner and I love it, I get an adrenaline rush from it...seriously.
Anyway, Blaine came down before Christmas and was planning to stay a few days after as well. Shawn's last day of work for the holiday was the 21st so we were able to spend lots of time with his dad and the sibs as well (Lorriann and Jeff). The 24th was the annual Mosicki get together, this year held at gramma Mosicki's house. It's always a wonderful time to see everyone from that side and have an amazing Polish/Ukrainian dinner (even more traditional than ours is!). I got introduced to a few new menu items when I first attended the Christmas Eve festivities at Marlene's in 2008 with Shawn. First was Kutia (ku-cha). Served cold, it's a poppy seed and wheat mixture in a creamy, light, sweet sauce. Very good, but I'm told either you like it, or you really don't like it.
The other was nalysnyky (nal-yes-nah-keh). This dish almost made me decide move perogies into second place on my favorite food list, not quite but almost. It is a crepe, with mashed potato and cottage cheese filling, it's heaven. Pure and simple, heaven on earth. Then again, I'm a sucker for anything with the word potato in it!
Anyway, enough about the food. After Christmas Eve dinner at gramma Mosicki's Shawn and I went to my parents house in Devon for the night since we were to be there in the morning anyway. Blaine went back to our apartment as his dog Lindor was there and they came in the morning with Lorriann and Jeff. And there in started another Christmas celebration, all day long. I think there were probably 20 people in that little bungalow at one point in the day, crazy but cozy! Dogs everywhere, people laughing, Christmas prayers, present wrappings flying, candles burning, food flying everywhere (mostly into mouths) and laughter being shared. It was a very heart warming Christmas all around.
New years evening was quiet. Mom and dad went away for the night so we decided to stay at their house in Devon, kind of like a hotel? Made a nice dinner and watched Shawshank Redemption. We didn't even realize that it was past 12am until I got up to check and it was 12:15am. We kissed and kept watching our movie, just not a big deal to us. Then we went to sleep...well, went to bed, didn't sleep, all night long. For no reason whatsoever. Usually we sleep great there because their bed is 92% more comfortable than our little one is. Then, we woke up in the morning and I was sick for 2 weeks after that. So that was great. I went back to work January 21, 2013. Still trying to beat my illness from the 2nd. Bad cold...or something.
By His grace,
-- Kaela (& Shawn)
