It almost felt a bit weird this morning, getting up and not adding a new figure to my advent poster, but then, once Jesus is here, you don't need anything more.
We had a good, if quiet Christmas -- as much as anything is quiet when Cody is around. The kids came up Christmas Eve, getting here around 2. The first thing I did when they got here was to give Brennan her birthday present. "I didn't forget your birthday, "I told her. "I just had the wrong date." I'd given her the Irish Hiking scarf and matching hat, I'd knit, and told her that since she was now a part of my family, she had to have something hand knit. "You knit this???" Brennan exclaimed. I think she liked it.
After a bite of chicken Alfredo for lunch, we settled in to watch A Christmas Story Christmas, but ended up talking so much we didn't really pay attention.
We hadn't gotten very far into the movie when I asked Cody what time he wanted to open gifts. He said, "We're here, and the gifts are here. Might as well do it now." And that's exactly what we did. Afterwards, we laid out all our stuff for our traditional loot pictures -- which my dad had always made us do when I was a kid. These two pictures are Cody and Brennan's stuff.
They seemed very taken with the home grown and dried herbs from my garden, and opened each bottle and sniffed them. Before they even got the lids back on the jars, Cody was already figuring out how he could use them when cooking. Or making tea. And Cody loved his wireless meat thermometer.
"I've been wanting one of these!" he said. I got him a slightly better one -- read, higher rated-- than the one I got, because I figure he'll use his more. Well, they both seemed to really like all their gifts.
This is my pile of loot, and I'm sure you will all be pleased to know that they mystery of who sent the Texas-opoly game has been solved.
It was indeed from my younger brother. And look-- a yarn bowl! Brennan was so excited for me to open that one, and Cody said, "It wasn't on your list, but she saw it and knew you would like it." And I do! I had to hurry up and finish the hat I'd already cast on,
so I could wind the rest of that skein into a ball and use the bowl.
We visited a little more, and laid out our Christmas Eve snack spread, and after we were thoroughly stuffed with sugar, we went out to look at lights, with the town square being our first stop. I hadn't planned on getting out of the car, but Brennan wanted to take some photos in front of the trees, so there I was, walking around the town square in Christmas Eve in my pajama pants.
Fortunately, except for us, the square was pretty much deserted. I took a bunch more pictures, but won't post them all here. They'll be on my Facebook album eventually. We drove around for a while looking at lights, and I told Brennan, "You've now seen pretty much the whole of Grenada."
Christmas morning, Cody and Brennan had a bit of a lie-in, and were actually still in bed when Bren's mother and sister both texted, saying "Where are you?" They had to jump out of bed, scarf down a bite of breakfast, and hit the road in a hurry. They'd invited me to come, but I couldn't think of anything more awkward than sitting around at Christmas with a bunch of people I don't know, so I spend a quiet day at home watching movies and knitting.
BTW, and they decided to take the gingerbread house kits home with them and do them there, because they didn't really have a safe way to take them in their car. I was a bit bummed, but totally understood. I wouldn't want them to slam on the brakes somewhere and end up covered in gingerbread and icing. I told them I wanted pictures, though, so hopefully I can see them.
Brennan had logged me in to her Apple TV account so I could watch Silo, based on the Wool books by Hugh Howey. I'm going to have to re-read those, because I sure don't remember every other word in the books being an obscenity. Is it any wonder people are getting fed up with Hollywood?
Today, I got up and decided it would be vacuum sealing day, and before it was all said and done, I got five dozen cookies sealed and frozen. Cody and Brennan took a lot with them, as well, but I still have plenty to eat between now and New Year's Day.
Then I sealed up 2 1/2 dozen sausage balls in packs of six-- because that's about how many I can eat in one sitting.
And lastly, I started sealing up some of the fudge and freezing it.
There is still quite a bit left, so I may freeze more of it before it's all over.
It was at about this point I realized my milk had begun to smell funny, so I ran into town to pick up a fresh gallon, and hit the clearance sales while I was at it. Despite having enough wrapping paper to last the next 10 years, I chose three new rolls.
Non-snowman themed paper, so next year, I'll have a little more variety.
A bit of good news, I'd been looking at this all season long, debating on whether to buy it or not but never did. There just happened to be one left, marked down to half price, so I got it!
The last thing I got -- other than some candy and mixed nuts, and I needed those mixed nuts, because Cody picked through and ate all the Brazil nuts and walnuts, was this Snoopy mug and glass set.
I haven't decided whether to put it back as a gift for next year, or to keep it myself. It will probably end up being a gift. I think Brennan would like it. Speaking of, I got a bit tickled at her when Cody was eating my mixed nuts, she said she'd never seen nuts still in the shells and didn't know what any of them were.
The last thing I bought of note was a metal bucket to keep my birdseed in.
When you raise the handle up, those little notches in the sides lock the lid into place, so wild critters can't get inside and eat up whatever is in there. I'm going to get another one for the deer corn that I put into my squirrel feeders next time I go back. That ought to keep the varmints out.
Funny thing is, as I was standing in line to check out, a lady in the next line noticed the bucket and said she liked it. I told her what it was for, and she then proceeded to tell me about every single mouse and rat her cats had killed in the last 27 years. I was so glad when it was my turn to check out.
That's about it for today. Now I need to go grab a quick shower, and watch the last version of A Christmas Carol that I haven't yet seen this year.
Laters.
1 comment:
The yarn bowl is lovely.
Sounds like you have a nice, relaxing, quiet Christmas. The photos of the kids in front of the tree is nice.
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