I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas yesterday! Here is a roundup of my photos from this holiday season in Connecticut.

It kicked off last weekend with visits from friends and family. Here we are with the Shefts, who have been close friends for so many decades that they might as well be family! Special shout out to Bruce, my dad’s longtime best friend, who tells his colleagues about my travel blog often and diligently adds my postcards to his extensive collection. We all had a wonderful evening catching up and eating pizza.

My sister and I visited Phyllis, a longtime family friend and neighbor of my mom’s family when she was growing up. It was so great to see her.

And we visited our cousin Terry! It’s so special to catch up, especially this time of year. And Terry sent us home with a delicious box of homemade cookies that we are still enjoying.

Last Tuesday we celebrated a holiday party at my parents’ business with an overflowing table of food and desserts.

I couldn’t get over how warm it was on Christmas Eve — I walked around the center of Wallingford to snap photos just before going to the 11pm service at our old church. A moody mist blanketed the town.

And here’s a bunch of my favorite photos from Christmas Day…

We slept in until 10am and spent a leisurely morning opening gifts.

I picked up these mugs at Target awhile back, anticipating that they’d be fun to photograph on Christmas morning. My sister got the Naughty/Nice mug, I got the mug featuring coordinates of the North Pole, my dad’s says “Santa, the original bearded hipster,” and my mom’s reads, “Sleigh Fuel.” All appropriately chosen for each family member.

My sister got this cute camera ornament when she traveled through Chicago last month, at a photography-themed holiday pop-up store near an art museum:

True story: we watched Step Brothers on DVD that night. It’s among my sister’s favorites.

My sister hit it out of the park with her gift-giving this year. She got me this gold “map of the world” necklace, which I’d pinned on Pinterest awhile back:

And she MADE this Los Angeles Metro map with nails and colored thread! (She also builds furniture, which is on sale at her shop.)

And she crafted this frame that features heart-shaped maps from cities that mean a lot to me. So thoughtful! Gold star for you, B!

I got my parents a bunch of 4×4 square prints from Printstudio, along with some frames. (FYI, that company also offers the option to print photos from your Instagram account… very handy.)

Bijou loved sitting on our laps all day.

We had brunch around 1pm. And I cooked a ton of bacon — my favorite treat.

Then we went over to visit Grandma. It’s always special to see her, but especially so on Christmas. She and my grandpa feature prominently into all of my childhood Christmas memories.

We Skyped with Mom, who stayed home because she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to spread germs. And then we Skyped with more family members.

By the time we got home it was nearly dark. There were still some gifts under the tree…

My generous sister also got me this colorful print; it hasn’t arrived yet, but I can’t wait. Love the design.

About 90% of my Christmas list this year was books, and boy did Santa deliver. (Last year I burned through all of my Xmas books by March, this time I think I’m covered for all of 2015.) I cannot wait to dive into these titles… just looking at the beautiful spines makes me giddy!

My sister surprised me with this book of creatively illustrated maps — they are mesmerizing; I can’t stop pouring over each page.

And a ceramic coffee mug designed to look like a camera. Perfect for my coffee and photography habits.

Then my mom and I cooked dinner — her yummy fish dish with breadcrumbs and sherry, my garlic Brussels sprouts and sweet potato casserole:

Here’s a closer look at the sweet potato casserole — I hadn’t made it in years so I improvised the recipe and it turned out great. I mashed up two cans of yams, added dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and microwaved it for about 7 minutes. Then I added a quarter stick of butter and maple syrup, tossed in pecans, and topped it with an entire bag of small marshmallows and the remaining pecans. Put it in the oven for about 10 minutes at around 300 degrees (until the marshmallows melted) and then put it under the broiler for 3 minutes. Ta-da! Tastes like dessert.

Then we watched Step Brothers on DVD while I edited the photos for this post. Lots of laughs!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Sending love from our house to yours!