Christmas Eve Eve is John's and my Christmas Eve with the kids. (It's funny that I still call them that at ages 24 & 21.) We carried out most of our traditions -- homemade pizza and a board game. Sorry was the game of choice and yours truly won. This doesn't happen often, so I must toot (toot toot) my own horn. G. chose to open one gift (a Disneymania CD), J. chose to wait until Christmas, and G. gave John and I our gifts. Her program had set up a little shop for its participants to shop at. She picked this out for me:
The "just add snow" part is easier said than done! It flurried on Christmas morning, but that's it. Does that mean we're getting slammed in January???
Christmas Eve morning was spent doing some last minute shopping. I don't usually go out on Christmas Eve to do shopping and let me tell you -- there were A LOT more people out than I thought there'd be. Dollar Tree was S-C-A-R-Y. I digress here, but it seems as though no matter how early I start shopping, it's never early enough. Seems like a losing battle and that's the part about Christmas that really bums me out. Anywho!
The rest of Christmas Eve was spent wrapping, cleaning, cooking, and setting this place up to host 22 people...yes, that's right...22! (That includes a 4 year old and a 4 month old and 2 adults ended up not coming...you do the math on how many we had in the end!) It was kind of a bummer because I was sick, John was getting over being sick, we had tons to do, I had a slight meltdown, etc. etc.. so we didn't end up doing what we usually do -- have wine, hot crab dip, and a movie. I ended up just calling it a night after we were done with our stuff, determined to wake up in a better mood on Christmas morning...and I did!
We got up and exchanged our gifts. John had purchased a 3-D LCD plasma something or other TV for our living room just a week or so ago, so we were low key on gifts. I gave John two fleeces, three Blu-rays (the TV was supposed to have come with a free Blu-ray player...um, yeah...not so much), a "how to make homemade Bailey's Irish Cream" kit, and a book, which I think is hilarious and only he would find it:
John gave me some great stuff -- a gift certificate for a massage, a beautiful handmade scarf from JessiArts, an ergo wrist rest, and this calendar (Emma Peel ROCKS!):
The kids came over and we gave them their gifts -- it was a Wii dance game Christmas for G. (HS Musical Senior Year Dance and Just Dance 3) along with another Disneymania CD, clothes, Pretty Little Liars calendar, and a journal. J. got an XBOX Gold subscription, a Mac software upgrade-thingy and money.
J. gave me these DVDs. When I was a little girl (8ish) I watched this minseries on PBS with my parents. Growing up in a small town and at that point, having only lived in that one place, it was so magical to imagine moving to Africa and living in the "wild." If you've never read the book or seen the miniseries, I HIGHLY recommend it. Great story.
Then the fun really started...lol. Family started arriving...the kitchen was crazy...laughter was everywhere. Even though I grew up in a very small family with very small sedate celebrations, there was MAYBE a tiny part of me yesterday that enjoyed the largeness and loudness of the day. :)
We had lots of appetizers, roast pork, spoon roast, mashed red potatoes, squash, turnip, roasted brussels sprouts, creamed onions, green bean casserole, gravy, rolls and too many desserts to count.
Opening up presents was next...everyone got very nice things and had more laughs.
Here are some photos I borrowed from our niece S:
John's and my great nephew J. with his new helmet:
Stepson J. and great nephew J:
Nephew G. and great nephew J.:
Almost all grandkids/great-grandkids with their Grammy/Great Grammy:
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