Christmas Day!

After a rather sleepless night during which I kept thinking I was hearing someone walk around in the living room, Christmas morning dawned chilly and rainy. This is probably the only morning of the year that Cody is awake before I am. However, I make him stay in bed until I'm up before he can go into the living room. It's an old family tradition to video the kids walking down the hall to see what Santa brought. He is usually pretty good about this, but last year he got up on the pretext of going to the bathroom, and just went on down the hall and saw what his gift was. Then he had to pretend to be surprised when I got up...

Cody is a kind of funny kid. Usually he passes up the big stuff under the tree and makes a beeline straight for his stocking. This year was no different. So first thing we looked in our stockings. Yes, Santa still puts stuff in my stocking--usually knitting stuff, but this year it was socks. Cody's big gift from Santa was a portable DVD player with a carrying case and car cigarette lighter adapter. He'd kill me if he knew I'd posted this picture, but he was very engrossed in his movie.



He did receive some new DVDs also, Garfield The Movie, The Red Green Show--Stuffed and Mounted Six-Pack, and The Santa Clause. I got the entire collection of Keeping Up Appearances.
We did open a few of our gifts before going to church, but saved most of them for afterwards. I didn't want to have to rush through it in time to get ready and go. After church, we finished opening presents. Cody mostly got money this year--$135. I told him he could buy groceries next week with that. However, he did get several gifts as well, including this Mississippi State jersey.


My own favorite gift is this darling little bear given to me by my dear friend Carole Scala:



After the gifts were opened, we went over to Beverly and James' house for dinner. On the menu was smoked turkey, roast brisket, dressing, sweet potato delight, broccoli casserole, broccoli salad, strawberry jello salad, hot pickles, cranberry sauce, and home-made dinner rolls. Dessert included pumpkin pie, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, and custard pie
.
Here is the table:

This is Beverly's mantle:
And her nativity:
After eating way too much food and visiting until James needed to go to bed, since he's working nights, we came home and spent the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying our new gifts.
When I was a child, I thought Christmas Day should never end. I thought time should just stop right then and there and it would be Christmas Day forever. But time never stopped, and Christmas always came to a close, just as this one has. All we have left now are the memories, but they've been good ones. I hope all of you had as good a Christmas as we have, and may God bless you in the coming year.