The local families gathered for our annual Christmas Eve smorgasbord.
Marc made 6 baguettes as a vehicle for his crab/corn dip. He says just call him Maurice.
Collin sent this with David's prayer request.
One of my friends added hilarity to the evening by gifting me this little white dog.
Jude was curious and then amazed when it turned on and did a little dance.
At first he was a little suspicious, but then decided he wanted it to dance.....again....and again.
This was my daughter's very creative contribution...a charcuterie Christmas tree.
A festive and fairly socially distant time was had by all.
At Collin's house, they laid out treats for Santa and the reindeer, as well as lego creations to entertain them. David made the tags and what just made me laugh right out loud was that the Lego Santa's sleigh is labeled "slay."
There was masked carol singing.
And my daughter-in-law was able to record part of my daughter and I playing our "Sleigh Ride" duet, accompanied by much rear-shaking dancing from the grandkids.
My daughter requested orange rolls for breakfast, and who am I to deny a mama pregnant with twins?
Eric showed off his new t-shirt at dinner. If you get it, you will laugh.
Jude hadn't gotten a nap by the time present opening rolled around, so I got to cuddle him and put him to sleep for a bit. This is just my favorite thing to do while grandkids are still young enough for it.
The festivities ended with this game I happened to stumble across while I was on Amazon. A controlled chaos kind of activity. We were all grateful no one was/got sick and had to stay home, for time together and for masks.
It's been whirlwind of activity for the past 10 days or so, and here a little recap of the excitement.
My husband has taken various excursions to the ponds with the kids and grandkids.
Isaac actually caught two fish on his line, one on the hook and one his fishing line "lassoed" while the first fish was swimming around. My husband, who has fished virtually his whole life, has never seen anything like it.
Caroline embraces her fish.
My daughter was up for a few days and got her turn, catching the most and the biggest, as is usually the case.
She and her husband got some fresh air and some fish as well. What you can't see in either of these pictures is the really cute twin baby bump she's sporting.
I sometimes think the kids go along only for the donuts and drinks that go along with activities like this.
Evan's boys also got a turn.
I caught this rare picture of the itinerant deer herd that wanders our neighborhood. They were in the neighbor's pasture and the only way I was able to get this shot was that they were so focused on something closer to them. I stood on my back deck in my bare feet. The things I do to document the goings on around here.
My husband finally put up the reindeer stalk. The tree was no longer naked.
These arrived. Over the years, my husband has started timing a delivery for the Christmas dinner table. Often they are red/green themed, so this one was quite a change and very pretty.
From the kids and grandkids, Evan sent this one of his family watching "Claymation Christmas." This is something we always watched with our kids during the Christmas season. Some traditions carry on to the next generation.
Eric's family had a charcuterie dinner one evening.
Gwen was pretty proud of her creation.
And I think Emmett was taking full advantage of the dinosaur sweater he was wearing.
We were invited over for dinner and saw this sunset as we parked in their driveway.
Their tree is lovely....all Christmas trees are with the lights off and the tree on.
We also watched "Claymation Christmas" with them. My husband has seen it so often, I think he decided a nap was needed after getting up early to make a trip to the ponds.
Elisa also sent me this one of the night they got to sleep under the tree. I was also told it took them a while to fall asleep.
From Collin's family, the weather in his neck of the woods has been mild enough for some hiking. James and David have some great boots.
They couldn't resist the stream that ran through the area and of course, water got in those cool boots.
The advantage hiking at this time of year, though, is that there usually aren't ticks around.
From John there was this cute plea for an M&M.....peese?
As it is every year, I looked forward to putting out my collection of nativities.
If I have these, the tree, and a few other sentimental pieces out, I'm as decorated as I need to be.
Maybe it's hard for others to understand, but the feeling I get when I see each one of these nativities is very precious to me.
Nobody else helps with this part of the decorating, and I'm usually alone when it happens.
I take each one out of the box and unwrap it.
I remember picking it out myself, or I remember the person who gave it to me as I set each piece just so.
All the different pieces centered around one thing.
The Baby.
The Gift God sent for all of us.
Even in a world tired of Covid and everything that goes with it....
Even in a time of huge division and incivility in society....
The Baby can bring peace. That's the feeling I have when I put each of these nativities out. I feel the peace of the Savior of the world. I feel the love of a God who knows me and knows what my life is like
I wish that for you this Christmas.....that you have peace.
I'd like to say we have a dedicated pizza Friday at our house but in actuality, with fragmented schedules and my husband liking to go on adventures, it only gets rotated into the menu occasionally. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who didn't like pizza. What's not to like? Bread, meat, cheese and the occasional nod to healthy eating by putting a few vegetables on there. We are fans at this house, although while my husband considers this edible, it wouldn't rank as his favorite pizza flavor. This is definitely a chick food pizza, if one was going to apply classifications. It has Alfredo sauce and poultry, not your basic carnivore's preference. I found it very tasty, however.
You're going to need some pizza dough and whether you make it yourself or buy it already done is totally your choice. This recipe easily makes a large size pizza. You'll also need Alfredo sauce. Again, you can buy it or make it...up to you. I freely tweaked a recipe from an old church cookbook I have to come up with this.
Garlic Chicken Alfredo Pizza
Pizza crust dough (a pound should give you one large (16") or 2 smaller medium-ish pizzas)
1 cup of Alfredo sauce (add a clove of garlic to it)
2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
2 green onions, thinly sliced
3 strips bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
Preheat oven to 450°. Place dough in pizza pan(s). Spread with Alfredo sauce, then sprinkle with cheeses, chicken, green onions and bacon.
Bake for 10-20 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is browned.
All the local kids came over, cooked various meats, and helped us decorate the tree. I really appreciated this because there's nothing more depressing to me than not having kids to help with this job. In fact, it makes me cry. I can't take each carefully-chosen ornament out of the box, most of which have to do with what was going on with our family in a given year, and not bawl like a baby if some of my progeny aren't around to remember with me. So despite some chaos and a fairly substantial noise level, we got the job done.
This year, Evan took the job of making sure the angel got to the top of the tree. You may recall in past years, she's had trouble staying put, but since we discovered this broom handle technique, things have been a little more consistent. In my opinion, there are no ugly Christmas trees. Once you get the lights and ornaments on, and then turn the lights off, it's all pretty magical.
Here are the new ornaments for the year....Bryce's graduation from college,
...and his wedding. There's also a Dr. ornament that hasn't made it on the tree yet. I'm waiting for Marc to come hang it. None of the boys have taken the initiative in creating the reindeer stalk either. The poor deer may have to stay in the box this year.
I made cookies and hot chocolate for an after-decorating treat, making a variation on these Peppermint Kiss Cookies.
We caught this picture of Jude the night Marc came and helped carry the Christmas bins in...after I fell down some stairs while my husband and I tried to heft things around, and I was banned from helping. We asked him where the elk was and he climbed up on the ornament box so he could get a little closer for pointing.
We woke up to some snow earlier this week. I just love fresh snow, especially at Christmas time.
I love how it looks like a nice, white blanket and the world is so quiet.
Soon enough it melts and gets slushy and messy, but the white fresh stuff? I'm a fan.
Temperatures were cold enough to have some drippy icicles.
We watched Isaac, Levi and Jude for a couple of hours one morning. Grandpa almost succeeded in putting Jude to sleep cuddling him, but I rescued his afternoon nap by making him stay awake. I understand the temptation to snuggle a sleeping little one, but I also remember the days of the sacrosanct afternoon nap.
Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got this picture from Evan. He has a very long driveway lined with maple trees and they've done a lot of raking this fall. They gathered up all the bags and loaded them in the back of his truck, clear up the back of his truck. That's a lot of leaves and I have a feeling they're destined for use as garden compost. Note Edward's very 13-year old teenage expression.
There were some gingerbread houses under construction at Eric's house. Gwen's of course, had a dragon theme.
Caroline's work in progress.
The boys just wanted lots of dinosaurs.
Yes, there was a definite dinosaur theme going on here.
Eric got festive for work.
They also had a crepe paper-wrapping event...
...using the symbols of Christmas as a jumping off point.
From Collin's house, John was caught "red-handed" with a red Sharpie marker.
Collin also sent this, saying John wanted to talk to Honey, then got himself settled with a grin ready to make it happen. All together now...."Awwwwwww...."
Rachelle's extended family is gathering a collection of Christmas music for her grandmother, and she sent me their family's contribution. If you watch it all the way to the end, you'll see that at least a part of Rudolph is in residence.
Well, here we are! It looks like we're up and running again, finally. Buckle up, because we're going to have a bit of catch up.
So around here this past couple of weeks...
This has pretty much been my life. Notice that this bottle is 2 liters of hand sanitizer.
This was my very depressing view of my Thanksgiving table...my favorite holiday....my....yeah, let's just say that I felt pretty sorry for myself.
My family did what they could to lift our spirits. Marc's family stopped by with a homemade "Happy Thanksgiving" sign, and Evan's wife and boys brought dog treats for Ollie and Gus. Of course, my husband couldn't enjoy any of this because he was banished to the basement.
My outdoor/woodsman spouse did go a little stir-crazy, though. He had to take occasional walks in the pasture with the dogs.
I got a little happy mail from James and David. I had to laugh at the dinosaur riding in a sling under the helicopter.
I did try to brighten up my quarantine house. I ordered some amaryllis bulbs and they are trying to grow. I think it's a little cool for them in my post-menopausal temperature house, so I put them in the sunniest window I own, and right over a heating vent so that on the off chance the heat comes on, they might feel a little better about life. My husband complains I'm trying to freeze him out. I tell him to put on a jacket....as I stand there in bare feet and an elbow-sleeved shirt.
For the second year in a row, we haven't been able to cut our own tree. Last year it was because people were sick, this year it's thanks to Covid and our quarantine. I think this one will work, though.
The Christmas lights are on at my house. Actually they went up on the house shortly after Halloween, but I refuse to have lights on until Thanksgiving night, so I had the guys unplug them all. Then on Thanksgiving weekend, we got them plugged back in, but the automatic timers were off, so they were coming on at really weird times, and half of them weren't coming on at all.
Between Marc and my husband, we've got things going the way we want now.
Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week or so, when my husband got out of quarantine, there was an afternoon of fishing at the ponds.
Quincy's laughing because this fish kept flipping back and forth as he tried to hold it.
Eric's family, along with Bryce and Sarah who were staying with them over the holiday weekend, did go into the hills to cut a tree. Only trouble is, they got stuck and Elisa was elected to shimmy under the truck and clip the chains on.
She is woman, hear her roar. Snow--0, Elisa--1
They got a dandy specimen that is up and decorated.
From Collin's side of the country James was pretty proud of his tree-climbing.
As well as his prowess on the rings. You have to wait for the little dance at the end.
John has decided he's a boot man. Do not get between him and his boots....or anybody else's boots.
He's also pretty fond of David's Batman mask.
There was a piñata for David's birthday. Batman-themed, of course.
Marc's family got their tree up and decorated.
And lastly, from Bryce and Sarah's neck of the woods...they will spend Christmas with her family, so they decided to get very creative with their first Christmas tree. Ah, Newlywed Christmases...
The good news is that my husband has reached the end of his quarantine today and is being allowed out of the basement. Even better news is that from all appearances, it appears that I haven't gotten it. There is great rejoicing in the land about both of these facts.
Now to the bad news. I'm not going into the basement where I can edit pictures for a few more days, and until he's given things the first cleaning. I'm waiting for any little virus particles to die. He's washed sheets, towels and clothes and is moving on to the couch throws. I want the bathroom and hard surfaces to get a good wipe down and then I'll wait those few days.
I've used up all my magic techno-posts, so things will be pretty quiet around here until I get down there.
What I CAN easily do, however, is leave you with a few videos from Thanksgiving Day, when we were all separated. Marc started us off, and not to be outdone, we all followed like sheep. So in chronological order and without further ado, here's Jurassic Marc to start us off.
Eric chimed in next with instrumental accompaniment. Incidentally, Bryce and Sarah spent the weekend there as well.
Collin followed with his non-traditional feast, complete with his boys joining in with the singing.
(Yep, can't edit and resize this one because I can't get downstairs.) Evan, who also came down with the virus because he was in the same adventure where my husband caught it, was isolated in a room at his house. He provided no music to his picture which provoked his brothers, but I think Covid preempts musical scoring.
I followed and out of necessity, mine was a 2-part series.
Because apparently I can't film, sing, and not push the stop button on my video. There was only one thing that was more depressing than my solo appearance at the Thanksgiving table and that was provided by my daughter:
