Christmas - Dinner & Family Fun

Our Christmas dinner gathering may have been small (just six people!) but we still had a lovely time celebrating.

I set the table with my best china and even got out my mother's sterling silverware. (Ooo, look! Salad plates! And the crystal goblets!)

A table for munchies (cheese ball and crackers, Christmas cookies, etc. was set out for anyone who got the nibbles.

Jenny arrived wearing the tee shirt she'd gotten from Sarah last year in the family Dirty Santa game.

We had a standing rib roast and ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn casserole, green beans, Christmas Jello, and rolls and butter.

Food coma for Molly!

Rick and Craig.

Lisa and Leslie.

Jenny.

The dessert table had cherry, pumpkin, sugar cream, and apple pie. Yep, four pies for six people.

We played Dirty Santa after dinner (Jenny wanted all the gifts)

and had a good laugh when we realized that, instead of my Dirty Santa gift, I'd put a gift bag of Pepper's dog toys out by mistake! I quickly made the switch to the right gift bag!

Leslie and Jenny gifted Lisa with a muumu 

and so we had to take a family photo of that occasion. 

Jenny is deathly afraid of praying mantises (As a little girl, she brought an egg case into her bedroom one winter's day only to have the heat of the home cause it to hatch. She awoke covered with hundreds of baby praying mantises. I'd be afraid of them, too, after that!)

She'd heard of the new praying mantis sculpture at the entrance of Happy Hollow Park, so she insisted on going to see it and have her picture taken.

The lightning bugs are actually lights - their abdomens glow after dark. Clever!

After dinner we played board games and chatted.

Millie and Molly traded beds for a while (they usually do.)

We also nibbled on leftovers and generally had a very relaxing day.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day - Unwrapping Those Gifts!

Despite the fact that it was only Craig, Lisa, and me together on Christmas morning, Santa did come and do his usual big delivery of packages.

Normally, all the packages are piled on top of each other and any attempt at grouping them by family is not too successful - there is just too much.

But this year we were able to keep things arranged in three main piles (gifts for later celebrations were kept in our bedroom and not placed under the tree.)

I changed up the mantle decorations this year, and we hung stockings for Craig, Lisa, me, and the dogs.

Molly awaits her turn to open some yummy smelling packages.

You can't see the sun catchers on the glass, but you can see my dad's nativity and some candles.

Now you can see those crystal ornaments.

Lisa decided to be the first, middle, and last child to come down and see her presents.

The nativity that my mother made me is so full of memories and is very cherished.

C'mon down, Lisa!!

Opening her stocking

with a little help from the dogs!

They especially liked the gifts that smelled "food-ish."

Like this one.

And this one. (That is a leg lamp dog cookie.)

I even had animal wrapping paper for the dogs' gifts. (I'd bought it to wrap Kate's gifts in since it had bunnies on it and she loves bunnies.)

Must be another food-ish gift.

Cole's gift to Lisa (I had fun wrapping that one.)

Surrounded by the girls!

A joint gift to Craig and Lisa from me - that caught them by surprise!

Matching West Lafayette High School hoodies for Friday night football games!

Pepper being silly while Millie inspects a big red bow.

Craig's gift from Pepper was an ornament with a black Lab on it saying, "He sees you when you're eating!"

Me surprised to discover that Lisa got me a Breyer horse as a gift.

She got a really nice one - a TSC SR Stella. And it ended up being one of the rarer ones that was accidentally made from glow in the dark plastic! Score, Lisa!

Sarah went to Lovell, Wyoming and took some photographs of the Pryor Mountain Mustangs and then framed them for me!

Super excited to get these up on my walls!

We had a pretty leisurely morning together just enjoying each other and Christmas morning. But family was coming in for dinner at noon, so soon we had to get ready for that.

Christmas Preparation

December was BUSY. Not only did we head to Florida for an early Christmas, but when we returned, other holiday activities kept us hopping.

We attended Ian's school Christmas concert at Mintonye. 

Ian is tall so he was placed on the back row. He is in the dark sweater just to the left of the conductor.

Lukas and Vanessa.

Ian is third from the left on the back row in this photo.

One December Saturday, we picked up the kids and took them to our house for cookie decorating. 

While we waited for everyone to get ready, Boompa (who is a special favorite of Lukie!) read to him.

I love that they are laughing together.

Just about a year ago, I found fifteen yards of the fabric I'd used to make my Christmas tablecloth back when our kids were little, and Jessica, Emily, and Lisa all accepted my offer to make them a tablecloth from it for their homes.

This is Lisa's - with the winning gingerbread house on it, her collection of red transferware, and two doggies hoping that there might be some food for them!

We helped Lisa find and decorate her tree (and she returned the favor for us!)

We were both late getting them up - December 20!

One of Lisa's boxes had had my mother's Christmas things in it and her writing was still on the box - made me smile but also get a bit teary. So many memories!

I love to wrap, and so I volunteered to wrap gifts sent here from our kids that were to go to Craig and Lisa.

I love this red wrapping paper.

Lisa also helped us put up the fence that my father made me as well as one for each one of his grandkids. (My siblings, too.)

Another snap of them working on the fence.

Christmas Eve Day I was really missing my parents, so I drove out to their home.

My siblings and I feel close to them here; in fact, they are convinced that our parents are actually there and have reported several very plausible happenings as proof.

I peeked through the windows and smiled through my tears when I saw the lone tissue lying on the floor in my mother's bedroom. She always had a tissue with her, usually tucked up a sleeve.

I loved looking up at the trees when I lived there and I still do now.

I rode Amy, Cee, and Pokey up that ridge to get to  Ravinamy and then Soldiers Home Road.

Christmas Eve proper Lisa came over cooked a delicious chicken dish with a creamy mushroom sauce. Afterward we all watched White Christmas together. It was a quiet Christmas Eve, but fun nonetheless.