what I’ve been up to…
Christmas began the 17th of December, with stepsons 1 and 2 and their wives, and grandson 1 and 2. We all got together at great-grandma’s house (MIL), SHE says the last time, but she says that every year, she’s 91. And one of these years WILL be the last one; we’re planning on next year here, but if she’s still up to it, I know she’ll insist on there one more time. I admire her greatly. She’s active, both physically and mentally. She runs circles around me as I’ve said more than once. A good role model. Turkey with all the trimmings, including pumpkin pie, fudge, carmel corn… persimmon bars, snickerdoodles… yummy stuff.
Christmas Eve my DD came; we had dinner with DH, DD, DS 19, MIL, and me. Oyster stew. Frozen fruit salad. MY family traditional dinner for Christmas Eve. Delicious. I will put the recipes in my holiday planner notebook (started this year; too bad I didn’t do it years ago! What a help it was!)
Christmas Day, at DS 29’s house. His wife, her mom and stepdad, her grandparents, her cousin and his wife, my DS 23, DD 25, DS 19. All but DS 27. It was good- DIL made breakfast, and it took all day to open presents….
The day after Christmas, my mom and dad came to our house, along with DS 27 and his wife, and DD and DS 19 were there… and afterwards, we played Mystery Mansion. A good time. We need a new Mystery Mansion game, however, it is so old and the cards are soft, and you can tell from the back which are the keys… LOL!!
NEXT YEAR… better plans. But I did pretty well this year, I can see areas of improvement. But I am happy with how things went. We had all the present buying and wrapping done way early. It was nice not to have to rush at the last minute. Next year, we will work on calendars earlier! It was too rushed, and generally a disaster. But they got done, and delivered before New Year’s.
Wednesday we took DD home. It is always such a sad time, I hate having her live so far away, only 8 hours but STILL!!! She’s been my best friend her whole life. I am so thankful for the wonderful relationship that we have.
Thursday we got back here. I am seeing so clearly how I have so much planning to do. Menu planning. I used to have so much planned ahead, we will get back to that.
