Well, as you can see, I’m very behind. We had a lovely Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to my parents for dinner and to celebrate Doug’s birthday. He was actually born on Christmas day, but we celebrate on Christmas Eve to give him a day all to himself. This year he wanted a giant sugar cookie instead of a cake. I think it was just to have a platform for lots of frosting. Anyway, I was pretty proud of the results.

Alyssa was very excited about Christmas – the most excited I’ve ever seen her. She was the first one up at about 7:00 a.m. We finally got rolling and opened our stockings.

Jonalyn sat nicely and opened her gifts herself. It took a while, but she kept at it. We had to stop in the middle to eat our homemade cinnamon rolls. After we finished and showered, my parents came and the gift opening was in full swing. It was a smaller Christmas than some years. but still wonderful.

This is Doug, with his gift of a CD tower. We don’t buy CD’s anymore, but we’ve run out of room for the ones we do have

Alyssa, beautiful with the make-up kit she got. We stressed to her that this is only for use when we aren’t going out in public. She proceeded to make over me, Doug, and Brian!

Jonalyn had a very Elmo Christmas. This one talks and is going to drive me crazy, but she laughs at it and loves it.

And finally, Brian with the Lego truck he got. It had over 800 pieces and 3 instruction books, but he finished it in less than 24 hours. If only he’d attend to his schoolwork like that!

No one took a picture of me, and for that I’m grateful!
After presents were opened, we enjoyed venison roast, homemade herb rolls, striped jello, corn, peas, mashed Yukon gold potatoes, and gravy for dinner. My mom was supposed to bring grasshopper pie, but forgot it at home. Fortunately, I had eggs, so we made some meringue shells and I found a box of chocolate mousse mix, which I whipped up and, once I had added some peppermint extract for a little holiday taste, I filled the shells with that. It was a good, improvised dessert. Then we played Scattegories (my kids are getting to be too good at games like these!) and the day was over. Couldn’t believe how quickly it went. All in all, it was a wonderful, blessed day, like I hope all of you had.