Behind the Scenes: Christmas Day at Our House with Family, Food, Fun, Fur Babes, and Foibles

The day started off intensely cold and also ended that way. The sunrise coming through the sunroom with the snow, was beautiful. I noted the ice developing on the windows and that God had painted a daffodil with the ice on the window, giving promise of warmer days to come. How cool is that? And we ended up with a white Christmas for the first time in about 13 years I think.

George and Dexter and I opened our stockings and sipped coffee. We had a while before the others would arrive, around 10:30 or 11:00, giving us time to get things ready.

Dexter got another new bed that I didn’t even know about. He got lots of new toys and is already working to destroy them. lol

George gave me an ornament that had Roger and Maisy on one side and Dexter on the other.

The food was….well, a LOT….enough for about 30 people only we had 8, lol. See for yourself. We started out with a few things and then keep adding! George has stuff he wants to add. I have stuff I want to add. So we just kept adding. The whole table looks like one BIG charcuterie board, lol. It’s all “buffet”.

Here was the cheese board, with added pecans, pistachios, and cranberries with 4 types of cheeses.

And a Mimosa Board. We had the OJ and champagne in the cooler beside the table. We added a little pitcher of of hearty antioxidant “berry juice”. I had made mini muffins and also added the spice cookies from Aldi (so good).

Our neighbors brought over a package of cookies that were so fresh and so good. They gave them to us last year. I am not sure where they get them but we love them so I added them to the table too.

And River’s donut. George made a special run just for his donut. The Dexter dog loves to try to get a bite and so River runs through the house going “no no dog dog” and pushes him away. And I run after River and Dexter going “watch out” here comes the dog trying to get a bite and trying to get River and/or Dexter out of the way to prevent a disaster in which dog eats specially retrieved donut and child results in screams wanting said donut. lol. My minds eye gets me in trouble. Then George runs behind me saying “it’s all ok Momma, leave everyone alone”, which results in me giving eye rolls inside my head where no one can see. lol Is your house like this too? Should we let the dog get the donut? No! Grandma’s protect and try to make things more perfect than they would have been. AND THAT’S a GOOD THING.

Aunt Martha gave us stockings and mine was a doggie! Perfect. That was so sweet. We give them one. I think they look forward to getting stockings again as adults and we enjoy collecting stuff for them.

Here’s the tree after Katy and Cody and Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken and Mom’s presents arrived. Over half the room with packages. And YES, it took a while to hand out several families worth of packages. It also included Susan and Kevin’s.

Santa came to see River and we set that up in the den. I was most excited over the car rug and the airplane set. River was most excited about the balls. He immediately wanted them out of the package. Is this a sporting sign? His Daddy played football in high school. I think River plays ball at home with his Dad already and River dresses in football jerseys for the team he and his Dad are watching and supporting.

His Momma working hard to show him everything. Mostly he wanted his juice and the balls. lol. It was too much too fast. He’ll enjoy things more when he gets time at home to play with his things.

And guess what? His birthday is coming up and there will be more coming! We’ve picked out what it is going to be. We can’t be there for his birthday this year, but we will certainly make sure he gets a gift and a face time.

We dressed casually and warm for Christmas Day. A hurried pic because Dexter was not going to stay up there long.

After the presents spread – Dexter wanted to be involved in everything. Bless him, he was told “no no” so many times. The handle on his back harness came in handy a lot as we pulled him from people, presents, River, and later, the cat. He mostly kept stepping on Aunt Martha’s foot and climbed up on both her and Uncle Ken trying to sniff and play with their dog, Cherie, who was just a quiet little angel. He really just wanted to be a part of everything but he was so big that his bigness got him in trouble a lot.

I was most impressed with my pile of presents from George, Mom, Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken, Katy and Cody and River, and Susan and Kevin. I felt truly blessed. I was worried I was not getting the bedspread quilt but I opened it last. I hope it fits. Amazon’s return policy has tightened. If it doesn’t I guess I’ll have an extra blanket I don’t really need. I told George we may not need to order so early next year. He ordered a sheet set for me but ordered full instead of Queen. We couldn’t return those because they were beyond 30 days he said.

The other things that happened is that we both got each other the “Somebody Feed Phil” book. lol. I was afraid that was going to happen.

And then something happened that shocked me. I had shared with George the bedspread I wanted plus several tops on my “Amazon Wish List”. I also had put a few things on there that I thought George might like, if I didn’t find anything else. I didn’t order them though b/c I DID find enough for him. I ordered him a puffer jacket instead. So when I opened some gifts up that George gave me I began opening those things I was going to get him. I was like “what is happening?” I quizzed him about it and he said “those were in your wish list”. I hadn’t realized that each link I sent was giving him the WHOLE list instead of just the item. So he ordered gifts that I was going to give him. It was a drum set – kinda sounds like steel drums, and an instrument that is like a thumb piano called a Kalimba. I won’t ever play these things. They were not on my list for me. I don’t know if he wants them or not. And I’m sure it is probably too late to return those too. So remember if you share ONE thing on your list – it gives them the entire access. So I will I have to create a different list next time than just my regular list. Wow. I feel bad because I feel like he wasted his money (and I could have gotten gifts I could use, lol) but that is ok – lessons learned. I don’t know why he thought I would actually play those. They are neat but I’m not much of a musician as I have other interests. I tried to play the piano but it’s just not very rewarding for me as I learned as an adult and therefore didn’t really learn it very well. Had I learned as a child and built upon I would have loved it I think, but I was not allowed to take the lessons when I asked. I was told we could not afford a piano. I was given a guitar instead and I had no interest in learning guitar. I tried. It was not for me. I wanted to play the piano. Since my musical quests never transpired, at age 60, I just don’t have an interest. Maybe I will look at it sometime, but I just don’t think so. I much prefer writing, creating videos and reading and puzzling and watching TV more.

I’ll take pics and share gifts from Christmas in the upcoming days.

Here was George’s stack. So I didn’t buy him those instruments because I bought him the Puffer Jacket. So I come in one day and he has a puffer jacket hanging on the chair in the foyer. I panic, thinking I have left his gift out while doing wrapping. Then I remember I wrapped it already so I grab it and look at it and his company logo was on it. They gave him a puffer jacket, of all freaking things, for Christmas – stealing my surprise. Geez. I was so disappointed, but it is what it is. So now he has two puffer jackets. ::sigh::

Tree with no gifts. Looks bare. I also felt bad that we never got the angel up atop the tree. She was beside it. It was too tall for me to reach. George said she wouldn’t stay up there anyway, so the angel just looked at it, lol. I should have put the Santa hat up there, but there was already so much to do and get ready that it never happened.

This was hilarious and I’m glad I caught the moment. River had a bow on his butt and was trying to get to Cherie. Dexter is following River and sniffing his but and also wanting to snag the bow! It makes me laugh because this is just sooooo the norm of what a family Christmas is like with toddlers and puppies and doggies.

Aunt Martha realizes that there is activity to her left. lol. She also had the cutest little socks but DEX kept stepping right on her foot with all his weight and she would holler “ohhhh” – that Dexter dog. If he did it once, he did it four times. He didn’t mean to. He’s just a big heavy dog. But it hurts when he sticks a foot in ya!

It took some effort for everyone to pack up their things. Especially Katy and Cody. That’s what they are doing over there in the photo, trying to make things fit. They came in Cody’s big truck which has a top for the back so it has a lot of room.

So my Aunt asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her I would love to have some long necklaces, particularly to wear with black but that I liked the longer necklaces that hang down. So she loves jewelry herself and so look what all she gave me. As I unwrapped them I put them around me neck. Believe it or not ALL of these were each wrapped in tissue paper and in this box. I could not figure out how to get them back in there! I had to use two boxes. I will love them. I will do better pics later. I thought I looked like Mister T. lol. I will enjoy these so much.

After everyone left it took us a while to clean up the table. We washed dishes by hand – 3 loads. And ran the dishwasher, lol. We put up any food that we thought was ok to save. George will eat anything even if it sat out all day, lol. I won’t. If you have food poisoning once, you never want it again. I’ve been careful since I was about 18 or so, sick at Applegate’s Landing on all you can eat spaghetti. I still call spaghetti my favorite food, but for a while I could not eat it. I was sick for a week and couldn’t eat anything and dry heaved for a couple to three days. I couldn’t keep anything down – everything had to go – on either end of my body. The other person I was with went to the hospital and got well immediately. I don’t know why my parents did not take me. I suffered for a week instead and was not sure I could begin putting anything in my stomach. The worst week of my life I think. I will ALWAYS be overly careful. Of course, when I ate that, I had no idea the meat was bad. It didn’t taste bad. So even if you are careful, there are times when you just can’t know. Everyone (George and Mom, mainly) always seem to think I’m overly cautious. And I don’t really care what anyone says. I go by my own rules with food. And I’m happy with that and that is what matters.

We watched “Dead to Me”. It’s REALLY good this year. It’s also funny with interesting and bizarre twists. I’m enjoying it so much. It’s a lighter version of something to watch when you are just needing to “get away for a bit”.

I organized my gifts some – all the food in one place and all the rest in my office.

So today we have more snow. We were hoping to go eat with Katy and Cody. We might still pull it off if the roads get better but we got another inch or so of snow today and it has completely covered the roads and reportedly is making things slick for their last day in town. It ruined our day the first day they were here, and ruined today. I didn’t want to veer too far away today for day long adventure, as it’s our day to relax the day after Christmas but I would have, if we had planned such, or at least to go out to eat and see them one more time.

We will be planning up a trip to see them in March I think, and it’s looking like we will fly to San Antonio and then drive to Fredricksberg (Hill country) or something like that. We’ll be working on those plans in the New Year, and securing flights, etc.

I have so much to share in the coming days and on into January – reviewing the year, sharing goals, and such. But I’ve typed enough today.

I will share that I will be doing the following today:

• Getting ready for the work week – picking out clothes, ironing, packing work bag with food and snacks
• Press some work pants and finish folding up the last batch of towels in the laundry
• Cleaning up bags, boxes from Christmas
• Taking pics of the gifts for the blog so I can go back and look at years past (and you can see them too).
• Work a crossword (it’s on my bucket list for this quarter)
• Read for pleasure (also on the bucket list to finish my book – I’m so close)
• Fix bathroom nicks/chews from Dexter with marker
• Plan my pasta meal for next week (add the ingredients to next grocery list)
• Work on next year’s goals/plans
• Work on the Jan thru March bucket list “Winter into Spring” bucket list
• Consolidate notes on my desk in my office
• Begin compiling a list of needs/desires from Amazon for my gift card redemption and Amazon reward points spending
• Check the weather, to make decisions about what time to come in tomorrow. (Bad timing b/c I was supposed to go in early to get both Monday and Tuesday of payroll done. My guess is I’ll have to go in late, and we’ll be pushing deadlines into Wednesday. I DO NOT drive in the snow/ice – not even with ruts – not even for payroll.)
• Check on Mom/Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken
• Work on Next Video if any time left
• Make sure Little Bit taken care of.
• Look at and Delete Email

Well, I did not make a blog entry yesterday. I intended to but it was just busy and we were wanting to do some other things and then watch a show. So I declare BLOGMAS officially over with having finished at least 24 days of it. Many just go through Day 20 so they can enjoy the days of Christmas and get ready. I think it was fun to do it. It did press me some, but I kept my commitment for the most part. Someday I’d like to do Vlogmas, but I think even in retirement that would be hard to do.

The upcoming days will be VERY busy as with the closing of this week’s payroll it is also month end, quarter end, and year end. Triple whammy has arrived. This will keep me overly busy until about mid February, usurping many extra hours of my time. I will however, do the best I can with the time I have, as I push for new goals in the new year, change things up a bit, shake things up a bit, and cram more than ever on my plate. It remains to be seen which things will shake itself out. But I am determined. Only God can help me through it all as I make decisions, prioritize, and try to do more with my time. I’m ok with spending extra hours at work during January through mid February – working an hour over a day or two. But I’m tracking so it can be used as needed in the following months when it is not quarter end and I have to do appointments for Mom and myself, or be late on snow days lol. It all works out in the wash, but I like to see it on paper so I’m sure to be true to ALL.

That’s about it for the blog today friends. I’ll be back as soon as I can. How are you spending your Day After Christmas?