There is STILL a pretty substantial store of Christmas sweets in this house, so as far as I’m concerned, Christmas is far from over… However, I must admit that the official holiday is done, even if we’re still working on our cavities.

This year was a real first in that my mom went to Puerto Rico for Christmas, leaving her four grown-ass daughters at home to “fend for themselves.”  We fended just fine.  In fact, it was one of the nicest Christmases ever–totally stress-free, delicious, and a real display of loud and crazy from us all.  I’m sure we made her proud.

Pictures say it best, right? Well…

We cooked together like good little sisters and menfolk, with no one slicing off a finger or burning down the house (big props to Isa for her first successful flambe job with that beef stew!):

We dressed up and took family pictures–of the “oh, look at us being so well behaved” and “oh, this is what we’re ACTUALLY like” variety:

The menfolks played poker for candy:

We ate at a reasonable time (which, for our family, means eating before midnight) and devoured some truly delicious food–though I’m not posting any pictures of dinnertime–who wants to be seen chewing, anyway?….  Oh, and of course we danced in the kitchen (and, um, on the kitchen surfaces):

Not to mention that the ever-growing Miss Young Money in her gigantic home was fawned over, harassed, and generally coddled by my sisters (though I really do wish some people would quit with the faux-but-not-quite-that-faux biting, ahem ahem):

It would have been great to have my mom,  but I think we survived.  We really shouldn’t tell her how great a time we had, actually, or she may never want to come back to us…