Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah!

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah everyone!! We've had a great one and hopefully you have, too. We did the "family" celebration yesterday on Christmas Eve. We never got our act together on the 23rd (it was about 10 pm before we had everything wrapped and groceries picked up from Publix.) So, we decided to go to Brent's family on Christmas Eve instead. It's about a 2 hour drive southwest from our house. We got up early on the 24th and loaded up the car with gifts. It started raining about halfway there, ugh! My parents were already there and so were Brent's brother, S-I-L and their 2 kids. His grandparents and great aunt showed up pretty soon after we did. We had a yummy lunch of grilled chicken, ham, dressing, and a lot of other starchy stuff. I paced myself and stayed far, far away from the things my stomach would like digest as lead. (I did not want a repeat of Thanksgiving!!) Luckily my methods worked and there were no ill stomach effects! YEAH!! Right as we sat down to eat my parent's cell phone went off. It was my grandma's home health person (B) saying she was unresponsive and they may want to get there a little sooner than they had planned. (They were headed there after our holiday festivities so the home health ppl would have Christmas Eve/Christmas off.) We went ahead and ate and were going to exchange gifts when their phone rang again and B said she was taking her to the emergency room because she was pretty much out of it. My grandma is 92 or so, and her health has been declining over the past year and she had a mini-stroke not too long ago. So, my parents gathered up their gifts and quickly headed out for the 3 hr drive to my grandma's. They called a few hours later and said it was just a severe bladder infection, so we were all relieved. Over the past few years we've scaled back on the gifts since everyone is fortunate enough to have much more than they need, so mostly we do small stocking stuffers and funny little gifts. I got a strange fur wrap/scarf from Brent's aunt and he got old stamps from her for his stamp collection. There is no stamp collection. Pips loaded up on new treats and toys from everyone and Brent's nephew seemed to really enjoy the accordian we bought him. (In the pic above my mom is directly behind me and my dad is directly behind her. Since everyone else is related to Brent it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who his mom, dad, g-parents, bro, SIL, and their fam are!)

We headed home loaded with leftovers. Pippin was exhausted. In a normal day he probably sleeps about 18 hours. Yesterday he was up all day doing laps to make sure no piece of dropped food was forgotten about and helping in the kitchen. He's smart and stays closest to the person most likely to drop something, in this case: the 2.5 yr old nephew. He got some crackers held below waste level and a piece of cornbread.

We drove around and enjoyed some holiday lights last night and will do the same tonight. It's rained most of today as well and has been a bit of an icky Christmas weather-wise. We exchanged gifts this morning and cooked a very yummy Christmas dinner for two this afternoon. It was great! Such a perfect, relaxing Christmas. We had THE best turkey - it was a Jenni-O turkey. I highly recommend them, it was the best turkey I've ever had and such a breeze to make. For sides we steamed some veggies, made a sweet potatoe praline casserole and some cornbread. For dessert (a few hours later!) we had key lime pie. All made from scratch by us! (Except the turkey). Martha Stewart would be so proud! Since lunch we've been relaxing and enjoying the day, we even had a nice nap on the couch and watched some International House Hunters. So far we've visited 36 of the 50 states together, so hopefully it won't be too long before we tackle the rest of the world!

Here are some pics of our house decorated for Christmas. This house comes alive at Christmas! It always looks so bare afterwards!!










Anyway, I hope you have all had a VERY merry Christmas!!