Food, gifts, kids, snow & a leaf blower

They say the second or third time is a charm.  I did a complete entry early today and lost it all. I was so upset I did laundry and then went shopping.  This time I’m writing it in WORD and then will copy & paste it into my journal.

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Well, Christmas is over for another year.  I think I had the most wonderful holiday season ever…or least for a long time.

 

Monday afternoon Bob & I went to my brother & sister in law’s house for dinner & gifts.  All three of my beautiful nieces were there, with their families, except for the youngest who is still single.  She’s the one that flew in from Denver on Saturday.  She’s there going to graduate school, getting her Master’s Degree.  We had a great time around the dinner table (9 adults and 4 little ones). And the food was delicious…  After dinner the little ones opened their gifts, one at a time with lots of oohing & ahhing.  Each adult had brought a $10 gift good for a male or female.  We drew numbers, picked agift or stole someone else’s gift.  When it was time for me to pick…the only gift left was one I’d brought (a beautiful calendar from Alaska) so I had to steal this great set of scissors from my niece Janna.  She was so disappointed & when she opened the calendar she said, “oh well I needed a calendar too.”   I really didn’t really need the scissors, so when  Janna wasn’t looking, I gave them to my sister in law and told her to go put them under Janna’s pillow.  Bob got a set of 3 stick up touch lights and he gave me one of those so, I didn’t come away empty handed.  LOL

 

Tuesday morning, my son Jim came over for mom’s special breakfast meal and gift exchanging.   His friend Carrie was going to join us but she ended up staying with her mom on Christmas Eve, so I sent her gifts with Jim as they were meeting up later Tuesday afternoon. 

 

Around 12:30pm, after Jim left…Bob and I took off for Enumclaw (about a 45 minute drive) in a heavy snowstorm.   It was sticking to the ground but fortunately not to the road.  I must say it was very beautiful as we made our way to the home of Bob’s youngest daughter,  June, and her family.   Within an hour after we arrived there were a total of 16 adults, 2 pre-teens, little Lance and two 6 month old little girls.   June’s in laws are from South Carolina, so the menu was slightly different than what we here in the Pacific Northwest are used to.  There was the traditional turkey and spiral ham, stuffing, cranberries, 10 pounds of mashed potatoes, corn, and then the black eyed peas, sweet potato casserole and two gravies (one for the mashed potatoes and one for the stuffing.)  For dessert we chose between pumpkin, pecan & apple pie….homemade cookies, homemade almond roca, Russell Stover chocolates and a big box of chocolate covered cherries.

 

Bob’s oldest grand daughter, Heather, had to be back in Orting at work at 5:30pm so about 4:20pm we started passing out presents.  I gave all 5 of his older grand children (including the two in Pasadena, CA) photo albums and he gave the three here in this area, Old Navy gift cards.  We never found a newborn Cabbage Patch doll for little Marin, but we did get her a little soft doll that’s even machine washable.  Maybe she’ll get the Cabbage Patch for her first birthday in June.  Bob got Lance a remote controlled truck and some sort of a Planet Earth figurine.  I found a cute kid’s dinnerware set for him and of course a few Matchbox Cars.

 

When we finally left there and headed back to my place we were very tired, it had been a long day.   But it had been a wonderful day….our third Christmas celebration in four days.

 

I must have been a good girl this last year because I got some very nice gifts.  Bob’s daughters are all very good to me…Hope down in Pasadena sent me the first season DVD set of “The Office.”  Paula & her family gave me a very cool black and white matted print of the first Narrows Bridge (aka Gallopin Gertie~it was only in place from July until November of 1940 before it collapsed),   June and her family gave me a DVD set of the first season of “Happy Day’s and from his oldest daughter Cheryl we both got a gift card for the Olive Garden.  

 

Speaking of gift cards; I made out well~one from Regal Cinema’s, Target, Applebees, Starbucks, Half Price Books and 3 from Trader Joes.   WOW !!  But, my most unusual & probably the best gift was from Bob.  My neighbor, Mr Newton, that moved to Missouri used to take care of all the leaves that blew into my yard and carport with his leaf blower…well the leaf blower moved to Missouri too.  Bob found a lightweight electric one for me.  I was so thrilled.  I have one of those 100 foot long orange power cords so shouldn’t have a problem keeping the leaves cleaned up.  Gee, I wonder if I can use it for dusting here in the house, too?

 

This afternoon, I went out and stocked up on some Christmas gift bags…Target has some beautiful ones…all 50% off.   I did grab up two boxes of Christmas cards too, I have enough on hand for about 10 years, but these were so pretty I couldn’t resist.   I also bought Debbie Macomber’s newest paperback released today, “The Manning Sisters.”  It’s too is available at Target and no doubt Wal Mart.

 

After all that rich food….I’ve made a big pot of vegetable soup this afternoon.  I just had two bowls of it and it tasted very good. 

 

I’m way behind on reading journals and hope to get to each of you soon….until next time, Linda