Eldest rolled into town last Thursday evening. It was so nice to have him home again for Christmas!
College Boy had to work Friday afternoon/evening so he didn't come with us on Friday for Daughter's Birthday lunch out at her favorite Mexican restaurant.
I got enchiladas in a mole sauce.
Both Hubs and Daughter got what they called a Mayan Burrito.
Eldest son got some kind of ultimate Nachos and of course had to Snapchat a photo of it before eating. lolz
The tree was up and filled out nicely with presents.........
Here's a look around at some of the ornaments on our tree this year..........
From the Alligator park in LA on our last trip down there in 2016.
My Easy-Bake Oven ornie......it's even the same color of mine from 1966.
This photo is from December day 1966. I am in our kitchen, watching something cook in my Easy-Bake Oven while my oldest brother waits patiently with a plate for his treat. Notice I am wearing a cowgirl outfit. lolz
Back to the tree..........
A souvenir ornament from our Summer Road Trip from Virginia City, MT.
One of my Daughter's ornies from her maternal grandfather.
A souvenir ornie from our Spring trip in 2016 to Cherokee, NC.
Eldest son's Percy the train ornie.
Another Souvenir ornie from our Road Trip last Summer from Wall Drug in Wall, SD.
One of the handmade ornies I have that my mother made when I was a child.
And one of the ornies I made for my oldest brother when I was a teen. Now that he's passed away I took those ornaments and put one on our tree every year to remember him by.
Saturday saw some cookie making, along with a lot of drinking........
There was also the traditional Bourbon Nut Fudge making too.......
This is always a popular item at Christmas around these parts. ;-)
Christmas eve saw us having our traditional dinner out at the local Chinese restaurant.
Love their crab rangoons but only ever have them on Xmas eve anymore....
4 of the 7 in our party decided that hot sake was in order due to the holidays....ouch!
Then it was back to the house for coffee/tea and cookies........
We made 3 kinds of cookies this year--Cranberry and white chocolate, frosted eggnog, and salted butterscotch and cashews.
A photo of the extended family-Hubs, all 3 of my kids, brother in-law and nephew.
On Christmas day it was just us 5 home together.
The doggies were laying under my desk waiting for my kids to get up. Gone are the days of 5 am rising on Xmas morning, now it's we're lucky if they get up by noon.
Finally they all roused and we went into the living room to find Santa had filled the stockings.
We took turns opening presents.........
College Boy got some new flannel shirts.
"Santa" got me a bag of caramel popcorn and Cinnamon wanted to help me open it. lolz
New smelly stuff for eldest son. (Notice the bow on his head.)
Hubs played Santa and handed out the presents.
New New Balance sneakers I got Daughter with some Kohl's cash and hid from her since March cuz I'm sneaky that way. They shipped the shoes with a store security thing through the lace holes....ugh....that was a PITA to cut through!
College Boy has gotten one present wrapped in Power Rangers paper since he was small, due to he had a big crush on the pink Power Ranger when he was little. This year saw the last of that roll of wrapping paper. *sniff*
Daughter's BF's parents sent her a bottle of aromatherapy body wash from LA.
Hubs' much pined for coffee grinder I paid $14.76 OOP for. Score one for me!lolz
Some pine scented body lotion from Eldest son. Chester wanted a peek in that bag. ;-)
Chester got a new bed from Santa........
And went right to work rolling in it smelling it up.
Cinnamon got a squirrel for Xmas from me and Hubs. Cinnamon hates squirrels. If you yell "Squirrel!" in the house, she'll jump up and run to the back door and bark her head off trying to get at it. I don't think she could figure out what it was as she's never seen one up close before and it wasn't running away. lolz
Chester of course had to check the squirrel out too.
A quick late breakfast/brunch of meats and homemade cinnamon rolls(with extra cinnamon!)and then it was stocking time...........
Cinnamon got a stocking full of rawhide chews(her favorite!).
But mommy kept taking photos/videos of Cinnamon and her stocking to show her "daddy" in LA instead of letting her have a chewy.
She
finally got one and Chester tried to steal it. Poor baby.....
College Boy got his fill of junk food, a Chipotle gift card and socks.
I always try to find Daughter a strange t-shirt. Last year was this one..............
She said I topped myself with this year's shirt............
Yep, a cat in a taco.
Weird.
A couple of hours later it was dinner time.........
I kept it simple this year-roast beef, mac and cheese, Harvard beets and rolls. I roasted the beets and cooked the pasta the day before, made up the cheese roux sauce and put the mac in the oven about halfway through when the roast was suppose to be done. After the roast came out and while it rested, the rolls went into the oven and I made up the sauce and heated the beets through. It had to have been the easiest, no pressure Holiday meal I've ever made.
I snapped a photo at the table before we all dug into the chow.
After dinner a few naps may have happened........
Eldest caught me the first time but after he got comfy on the sofa I got this shot off......
Chester followed Eldest's example......
And Cinnamon tried to nap but her mommy kept messing with her trying to get cuddles......
Hubs got all the Christmas cards we received hung up in the kitchen window so I'll have that to look at and enjoy for a couple more weeks.
Otherwise we just hung out around the house and took naps and the kids had fun hanging out with each other for the evening.
What was your Christmas like?
Sluggy
