Christmas

Image by Zanastardust via Flickr

On Christmas Eve, I donned my festive top, sparkly earrings and sparkly glasses, and Kevin wore his red plaid shirt, and we drove over to the Duckett's for dinner and a visit from Santa.  Madison (aka Madimoo) is 3 and 1/2 years old, and boy was she lovin' Santa.  She heard him knock on the door and ran to greet him and jumped up and down screaming, "It's Santa, It's Santa!" 

Santa was perfection with his genuine white beard, but apparently took Michele Obama's weight loss campaign to heart, and lost some weight.  The kids didn't mind.  His red suit, merry smile and boisterous Ho! Ho! Ho! got them in the spirit real quick.  While Santa read the "Night Before Christmas," Madimoo was in charge of the bell ringing, and her cousin, Haley, was in charge of turning the pages.  Santa left out the part about the "The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth" and one of the kids noticed.  So Santa mentioned how he had given up smoking the pipe a few years ago on account of how bad it is for ya.  I thought that was pretty clever.

Now if you don't like Christmas, I suggest you go over to the Duckett's house.  Every nook and cranny of their three story home is dressed up for Christmas.  I counted seven trees, but there could have been more.  My favorite is the upside down tree with presents on top, and the star on the floor, and grinch-themed ornaments hanging from the branches.  A big old Grinch sits in a chair and guards the tree.

The dinner menu was full of home-made goodies that included two kinds of turkey, ham, meatballs, sausage balls, macaroni and cheese, green beans, corn pudding casserole (Christina made it and it's my favorite!), coleslaw, macaroni salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, and I don't know what else ya'll.  It was all fabulous. 

After Rudolph picked up Santa, we enjoyed homemade chocolate covered cherries, homemade mounds, red velvet cupcakes, pecan pie, other kinds of pies, cakes, and cookies.

Then while the children opened gifts, the adults drank some wine, and played a money game, where I won the pot!  Beginner's luck! 

Christmas day I was able to sleep in and enjoyed a leisurely day of watching some old movies and getting ready for Christina, Dylan, Madison and Eddie to join us for Christmas dinner.  Heath and Annie are in Canada spending the holidays with her family this year. 

Madison was very happy that Santa came to our house too, and she eagerly ripped open packages.  One of her presents was a princess dress and necklace which she immediately put on and modeled for us.

Dinner was apple and raisin stuffed pork loins, twice baked potatoes, green bean almandine, spring green salad with raspberry vinaigrette, and rolls with butter.  Dessert was coconut cake and cheesecake.

Dylan and Christina gave us a Magellan GPS device, which we will LOVE LOVE LOVE!  We used theirs for a trip this past year and fell in love with it.  Now to planning our trip across country!

Kevin gave me a book I wanted, a Wolf Kahn calendar (one of my favorite artists), a COACH purse (yeah, that's right!), and a Le Vian ring that will stop traffic.  His Mama taught him well.  He sure does know how to treat a lady right!  

Heath called us from Canada, and I got so tickled when he told me what he got for Christmas.  A juicer.  I don't know, ya'll.  Something about that cracked me up.  I asked him .... "Did that thing, by chance, come with some doughnuts?"  Hee hee.  A juicer.  Now if that ain't telling somebody something.  That just might have put me in a bad mood.

Well, January 1st is coming here shortly.  I guess that juicer will come in handy to get rid of all the excesses of the season.  But until then, I'm going to enjoy these last few days of the year, and dig into my secret stash of homemade mounds bars!