the best day of the most wonderful time of th year

As we all know by now, I'm a freak for Christmas. It is my favorite thing. This Christmas was no exception, and it was extra special because I got to spend it with Guy in my childhood home.

Christmas morning backyard, the tree, me, Erika & Brooke

Nobody wanted to get up at 8 am with me so I reluctantly went back to bed. But at 9 am I was banging on doors and opening the blinds in my brothers room so they couldn't keep sleeping.  We had coffee and everyone gave and received a lot of great gifts.  Traditionally we have cinnamon rolls and bacon after gift-opening, but this year mom got suckered into buying butter braids from a neighborhood kid so we had those instead. The snow on Christmas morning was gorgeous, so we took Michael's puppy for a walk in the neighborhood.  When we got home, we helped Mom by organizing the garage. Then people started coming over! The day is more or less a blur, but Kate stopped by to give me a present (a beautiful scarf that coincidentally matched my outfit perfectly- besties) and I loved talking to all of our close family friends and eating a delicious dinner. Everyone was very tired from drinking all day so the evening wrapped up around 10.

Speaking of drinking all day...(amazing segway) on Christmas Morning I made what Guy called "The Best Drink You've Ever Made". Drink-making is high up on my list of skills if not my #1 skill, so this was quite the drink.  Preface: I joke that if there is one thing my dad has taught me, it is how to make an outstanding bloody Mary.  Of course he's taught me a lot more than that, but what could be more important? Anyway, the compliment that really sent me and this drink over the top was from Dad who said it was "The best bloody I've ever had." WOWWW! So what's in it, you ask? Yeah right like I'm giving my secrets away! joke, here's the recipe: this year we swapped the vodka out for gin (aka a Red Snapper which is also an awesome nickname for Guy). At first I was making the drinks custom but then so many people were requesting them so I made a batch of mix- also not everyone was feeling bold enough to try them with gin so they could have vodka with the mix if preferred.
Erin's Christmas Red Snapper:

• lemon pepper
• celery salt
• Worchestershire Sauce (a few shakes)
• Original red Tobasco (a few shakes- I like mine to burn so I give it a little more than a few shakes)
• 1/2 low sodium v8
• 1/2 clamato
• forkfull of fresh horseradish

Fill a highball glass like those pictured with ice and gin (or vodka), top with mix, pour into an empty Plastic cup (over the sink!) and back into the highball glass to mix and ENJOY THE  BEST DRINK I EVER MADE!