This & That

Point A to Point B

After the upheaval of the holiday season, I always look forward to a return to routine.

Perhaps I'm just a boring person, but my mind functions better when I come up with a plan for the day and follow it through. I am a list maker and I like physically crossing things off that list. It gives me a sense of accomplishment...like I've carried through. So, this week I am back to a semblance of a routine. Since I still have a couple of college kids in residence, things tend to be a little more variable, which is probably really good for me.

And on that note, my daughter has had her hands in my hair. She likes to poof it out a little. Hard to see here, but it's about as wild and crazy as I get.

Christmas Day in the Morning

There are things I miss about having kids in residence. Staying up into the wee hours putting Christmas together isn't one of them. We were in bed Christmas Eve by about 10:30 after watching George C. Scott's "A Christmas Carol." We do that every Christmas Eve and it's amazing how often during the year we pull quotes from it.

We started off at about 8:30 on Christmas morning with breakfast. Recipes are coming so you'll see this picture again...and again, but it really was a pretty easy way to start things off. OK, maybe an overnight breakfast casserole might be easier, but still these worked pretty well.

Probably the most interesting picture from the day and there is a story behind it. After my daughter got home, I found out that it was my son, Eric, that put her up to the whole, "I'm staying 4 extra weeks...." prank so I sent him these charcoal briquets to stand for lumps of coal. Wrapped them up and everything.

The boys were pretty excited to open presents. 

My DIL had made them super hero capes and masks, which they loved and looked pretty adorable in. I don't know if adorable is the right word to describe a superhero, but they were.

Evan got this from my DIL and I think the sentiment might be pretty true. My husband does the grilling at our house since I tend to turn everything I try to grill into hockey pucks.

We had dinner fairly early in the afternoon. We usually have ham, but since my daughter had missed Thanksgiving dinner here in November, she requested a re-do for Christmas, so it was turkey and all the trimmings for us.

 

 

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Celebrating Christmas Eve at our house follows a pretty standard yearly format. 

Early in the day we got some snow, which gave us a white Christmas. Love that. Let's turn on some Bing Crosby and get in the mood.

We also have a smorgasbord of finger-type foods, and they are pretty much the same year after year. I usually try one new recipe just to see if it might be good enough to make the cut, but it's been a few years since we've run across one that was a keeper. This year it was a hot corn dip that was fine, but won't be making repeat appearances on Christmas Eve.

Since Evan's family was spending the night, they brought over some things they wanted to try.

With the amount of food we had, you'd think that we were feeding an army. Nope, and mostly the leftovers were gone the next day. My family is serious about their holiday food.

Growing up in my family, my grandparents always got us new pajamas that we opened on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition that we continued for our kids, so everyone that was here for the night had new jammie pants to wear.

Here are the boys' parents sporting theirs.

And Bryce and my daughter. She picked out Bryce's ninja turtles pair.

There is carol singing, a story that I got when I was a baby that we have read every Christmas since we've had kids, and reading the Nativity story from the Bible. This was the first nativity set we had as a family. Roger has enjoyed carrying around the sheep. This was how it looked this Christmas Eve. Usually I spread the critters out a ways across the table there, but this Christmas the animals were very interested in the baby Jesus, which is maybe how it should be.

Baking and Filleting

I don't know about all of you, but this time of year tends to be a little food-laden. If your family is anything like mine, there are certain things that are always made for Christmas and one of the really nice things about having my daughter home was getting to cook with her.

We made sugar cookies together.

She made the peanut butter cup cookies on her own while I was stirring caramel on the stove. We also made Spritz cookies and Peanut Blossoms. The only cookie we didn't get to this year was my grandmother's Lemon Wafers but it has been exceptionally busy this month with her homecoming and all. 

There were homemade rolls for Christmas dinner. Sometimes I have to resort to extreme measures to keep the guys out of them until dinner.

 

Around Here This Week

Around here this week, it's been a busy one as I suppose everyone's week of Christmas is.

Part of what makes me happy at Christmas time is singing really good Christmas music. I participated in my local community chorale, which performed Vivaldi's "Gloria" along with other more traditional carols. As you can see here, I did a little duet in the Gloria. As often as I've done this, meaning either singing or playing the piano in public, you would think it would be no big deal, but I still get nervous before I do something like this. It went as good as it could, I think.

Then our church choir went to a local care center and helped put on a program for the residents. Bryce made it home from the break and I recruited him to bolster the bass section a little. My daughter and I put on Santa hats and played our "Sleigh Ride" duet, which was just so fun on so many levels for me. 

For family night this week we wrapped the caramels I made and watched one of our all-time favorite Christmas specials. 

And this week we also took the plunge along with a lot of other people and saw the new Star Wars movie.

I have to say that I really enjoyed it...especially all the references to the original movies, but.....did anyone else think Ben looks a lot like Snape? Of course, Christmas happened as well, but will get its own post. 

From the kids and grandkids this week, Santa put in an appearance at my husband's office when Evan's boys happened to be there.

Eric's family sent a few pictures. Here's Emmett enjoying his new dump truck.

James had some fun out shopping this week. His parents found out he could fit nicely in a big bowl.

Isaac got a train for Christmas. 

My mother stuck this bow to Bryce. I've always thought he was one of the best gifts I've ever gotten.

And my daughter was reunited, after 18 months, with her oldest friend. They have been friends their whole lives and it was really sweet to see them together.

 

Merry Christmas!

All is Calm, All is Bright

 

I hope your holiday is merry and magical.

There is Magic

While Christmas is not my favorite holiday (is that horrible of me??), there are certain things I really enjoy.

The magic of Christmas tree lights in a dark room, especially when there are kids here to enjoy it. Christmas music playing in the background, being able to sing Christmas music.

The fantasy and magic of Santa, even when kids are too young to understand it.

Together time.

Even when the pictures aren't perfect because it's really too dark to make them that way, when you put the blur of Christmas on them, they are still magical.

A Little Light Reading

Am I the only one who finds this funny....and that it eerily hits a little close to home?

 

See Mother. See Mother laugh. Mother is happy.
Mother is happy about Christmas.
Mother has many plans. Mother has many plans for Christmas.
Mother is organized. Mother smiles all the time.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother smile. Mother is happy.
The shopping is all done. See the children watch TV.
Watch, children watch.
See the children change their minds.
See them ask for different toys.
Look, look, Mother is not smiling.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother sew.
Mother will make dresses.
Mother will make robes.
Mother will make shirts.

See Mother put the zipper in wrong.
See Mother sew the dress on the wrong side.
See Mother cut the skirt too short.
See Mother put the material away until January.
Look. Look. See Mother take a tranquilizer.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother buy raisins and nuts.
See Mother buy candied pineapple and powdered sugar.
See Mother buy flour, and dates, and pecans, and brown sugar, and bananas, and spices, and vanilla.
Look. Look. Mother is mixing everything together.
See the children press out cookies.
See the flour on their elbows.
See the cookies burn. See the cake fall.
See the children pull taffy. See mother pull her hair.
See mother clean the kitchen with the garden hose.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother wrap presents. See Mother look for the end on the scotch tape roll. See Mother bite her finger nails. See Mother go.
See Mother go to the store 12 times in one hour.
Go Mother go. See Mother go faster. Run Mother run.
See Mother trim the tree.
See Mother have a party.
See Mother make popcorn.
See Mother wash the walls.
See Mother scrub the rug.
See Mother tear up the organized plan.
See Mother forget gift for Uncle Harold.
See Mother get hives.
Go Mother go. See the far away look in Mother's eyes.
Mother has become disorganized. Mother has become disoriented.
Funny, funny Mother.

It is finally Christmas morning. See the happy family.
See Father smile. Father is happy.
Smile Father smile.
Father loves fruit cake.
Father loves Christmas pudding.
Father loves all the new neckties.
Look, look. See the happy children. See the children's toys.
Santa was very good to the children.
The children will remember this Christmas.

See Mother. Mother is slumped in a chair.
Mother is crying uncontrollably.
Mother does not look well.
Mother has ugly dark circles under her blood shot eyes.
Everyone helps mother to her bed.
See Mother sleep quietly under heavy sedation.
See Mother smile.
Funny, funny Mother.

Some Things Don't Change...

It's somehow reassuring to know that some things don't change much with time and separation.

Like this.

My daughter was holding my phone, following the map function to make sure I was going to the right direction to pick up Frederick from school one day last week.

Selfies ensued.

Selfies with interesting faces.

Selfies with Frederick after picking him up...yes, we managed to get to the school just fine.

And a selfie with me. Nope. Some things don't change, and right now I'm pretty happy about that.