And so this was Christmas . . .

 

 

(source)

Helloooooo . . . from the flip side of Christmas. I just had the most magical and wonderful Christmas ever! At first I thought my son wasn't going to be able to make it over with his family because the weather was so lousy, rainy and windy on Friday, but then miracle of all miracles, they arrived here on Christmas Eve!  They stayed an extra day to make up for it and only left yesterday.  We had several wonderful days of family time and frivolity. Ate plenty of great food, got in loads and loads of hugs and kisses and just plain had a great time together! 

  

The stockings were a huge hit. I had filled the with lots of fun things. YoYo's, little games, etc. This is Gabe wearing the funny glasses I had put in and Luke reading about his "make you a man" mask, while Mama looks on! 

This was Luke wearing his glasses and beardie.  haha  It was so funny. We all thought he looked like Uncle David. 

 

I think it was pretty safe to say that the stockings were a success, and I am so glad that I was inspired to do them.  Normally I just give them a card with money in it, but this time I added the stockings. They do enjoy the money, but I think they enjoyed the stockings more!

 

I had put all kinds of neat things into them. Toiletries of course, yoyo's, Rubik's cubes, funny glasses, packs of short bread, candy, etc.  It was so fun watching them discover everything.  My first time ever having a Christmas with Grandchildren in attendance!

 

Even Anne tried on the beardie, lol. I told her it was a peek into menopause. lol

 

Anthony as always was a great elf! 

 

Cinnamon enjoyed the bags, whilst Nutmeg was just being Nutmeg and hiding underneath the bed like the big chicken he is.

 

I did get a nice family photo of them all in their matching pajamas.  Every year they get matching pajamas. I think it is a lovely tradition!

 

Anthony cooked his Fredericton Toffee, a Christmas tradition. It ended up being more like fudge, but it was still really good. 

Luke, Cinnamon and I played a Barrel of Monkeys. It had been many years since I have played that.  Earlier on Christmas Eve while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, Dan, Cindy and I played Charades and that was a lot of fun. That Dan is really good at it! 

 

And we had snow for Christmas!  Yay. It was a white Christmas after all!  It snowed soft fluffy flakes all day long! 

 

We went to Cindy's in the afternoon on Christmas Day as we were having Christmas dinner there. She had cooked a beautiful turkey with all the trimmings. I brought the roast potatoes.  It was a really lovely meal and we just enjoyed being all together.

 

They all had a rip-roaring game of Risk in the evening. Cindy and I just watched. I wasn't really into it.  But they really enjoyed themselves. They didn't quite finish the game. (That's a really long game!)  They vowed to start earlier next time so that they could finish it. Dan was so happy though. He's been after someone to play Risk with him for a long time! 

On Boxing Day we all enjoyed Dinner here with a Roast Beef Tenderloin. We had been going to have it on Christmas Eve, but because they weren't able to get here in time we had my sister's tortiere instead and it was fabulous as always!

They left to go home yesterday morning and arrived back there safe and sound. Altogether I think we all enjoyed the weekend very much.  It was a real family Christmas through and through.

 

My son brought me over his old x-box, which he hooked up for me!  I was amazed.

 

And he got me this game.  He's been telling me about it for ages. We got it all downloaded and I started playing it last evening. I am not so good at the controller yet, but I will get there!  It's going to be a lot of fun. He also got me a game. Star Dew Valley, which he says is quite popular. My grandson Luke has it also so we can play together.

 

Cindy made me the most beautiful scissors case.  I just love it. Of course, it is covered in my favorite things, red and white toadstools!  She does a beautiful job on these wallets, purses, etc. that she makes.  I love LOVE my scissors case.  She is so talented.

 

My dear friend Elaine (I hope she is not embarassed by me naming her) made one of my dreams come true and gave me a Blythe doll.  I was so surprised. I cried. Thank you, Elaine!!! I am going to have so much fun making clothes for her, posing her, etc.  A childhood dream come true.

Cinnamon really likes her as well.  

I have not thought of a name for her yet.  I am putting great thought into it. I am thinking something like Noelle because she came to me for Christmas, but I have not decided for sure yet.

Cinnamon was very present throughout all of Christmas. Nutmeg was being his scaredy cat self and I wasn't able to catch him on camera at all. In fact, there were a few times I thought he had done a runner, but he was just under the bed. He is such a funny little soul. Love them both to bits.

Yesterday I went over to Cindy's for leftovers for supper and it was nice. I think I always enjoy the leftovers more than I do the main meal. For some reason they just taste better.  Funny how that works!

In any case, this was one of the best Christmas's ever.  I am still enjoying all the happy feels from it all. It will be very difficult to top this one!  I hope everyone else had a very blessed Holiday, whether it be Hannukah or Christmas or whatever. I hope you were blessed and content.

We are off to the bank this morning. I have money in one bank and need to transfer it to my account in another bank. For some reason I am unable to pay bills from the bank my money goes into, so I end up having to transfer the money for my bills to the other bank every month. There used to be a branch in town, but they closed it and now I have to travel to the next town over each month to do so. Annoying but it is what it is!

I will leave you with a thought for the day . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *Our destiny is not so much

determined by the

number of times that we fall,

but rather by the number of times

that we pick ourselves back up again.

•。★★ 。* 。•。★★ 。* 。•。★★ 。* 。

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Biscuits Supreme. From the Cookbook by Nathalie Dupre called Southern Biscuit.  These are an excellent plain and simple biscuit.

I hope that your holidays were as happy as mine were and that you have a beautiful day today!  Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

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And I do too!