The last Cwistmas family gathering is over

And I enjoyed every moment. I didn't know I had a the stamina to do the turkey dinner and all the trimmings thing again. (Mind you I forgot to make dressing and to put out the cranberry sauce)..but other than that I thought it was tasty...even though I had my head in the wine barrel for the most part:) Just kidding, sort of. We had turkey, mashed tators, gravy, a secret lettuce salad my mom used to make, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot casserole swimming in a Velveeta cheese sauce..(nothing says Christmas more than processed cheese products), sweet and sour meat balls, homemade "lazy mans holopchi" (cabbage rolls ... without the rolling), a chicken and rice dish I make with soy sauce and other stuff, and buns and butter, I think that's it. Dessert was Caramel Spiced Apple Cake with Cool Whip.

For some reason I was so organized this year, it was a piece of cake. Everything was done in the morning...it was cooked, diced, sliced, boiled, punched, peeled, pulled, steamed, creamed, and seasoned. All the dishes were cooled off, salads were made and everything was put into containers in the fridge to ripen. Then I had the rest of the day to fart around the house adjusting pictures, having a short nap, setting the table, and have a short nip here and there. By the time the first guest arrived here at 5:00 I was drunk... So, my plan worked.

It was 6:00 by the time everyone got here, and all I had to do was put all the casserole dishes in the oven, and heat it all up....Yeah I know what you are thinking, I put the salad in the oven too, but no, to ease my mind in the morning I put THAT container, in a very inconspicuous location in my fridge, in order not to cook it. However, it took me 15 minutes to find it in the crisper.

It was good.

We got to meet our nieces boyfriends along with Sheldon...a long time friend of theirs who came with them, that I have had an old lady crush on for sometime. I have to quit hitting on him. It's a good thing he has a good sense of humour. But, I did set up a play date for next week...heh.. Ha, if that ever happened he would have to supply a box of "Depends" for me... I would piss my pants!! Never mind a condom.. I'm kidding I hope you know, I wish he was one of my nieces boyfriends because he fits so perfectly into our family.

We had a great time, and of course I only thought of bringing out the camera when everyone was leaving....... yeah...my new camera.

I got some great gifts, a lighted animated type skating rink from my SIL. It is so cute. I will take a picture of it tomorrow. Also water dispensers for your plants....they are so cool. You put them in your plants and they keep them watered for two weeks. And wine of course, I got some really fine Riesling. Much better than the stuff I brew in my basement.

Today was a lazy day, turkey sammiches for lunch, then I went on the computer and read blogs, and finally got my ass together around 3:00 and cleaned up around here. I don't know about anyone of you, but when I have guests two weeks in a row, I hide crap. Which means everything that was a little ugly went into the bedroom closet. So I had to drag all that crap out again so we could function again. Like all our computer business stuff, which sits across from the dining room table.

All and all it has been busy, yet very nice. Friends and family. So important. Which reminds me, remember last year when I found a large Christmas Moose on my front step? Well we know that it was Hippy Chick who left if for me. She had named it Clive. When I was at her farm last year I noticed she had also bought herself the same moose. She had it sitting in her garden. So, two days ago I was wandering around a store in a strip mall close to home, I found a baby moose, the exact replica of the big moose she had given me. I snapped it up. I knew she was coming over here on boxing day for dinner and I was going to surprise her with the off spring of Clive.

When she walked in the door, I saw she had something in her hand. But, she held it back. After she got her coat off and we started to talk, she presented me with ....yes you guessed it...the little baby moose I had already bought for her..... I pretended to look very surprised, and then I took her aside and gave her my present......yes.....the same ole baby moose... It was so neat. Yeah, I still say neat...get over it. So, to make this story a little shorter, Hippy Chick and I were on the same page. We both own a short little metal moose. I haven't named the little runt yet. I'll wait till she names hers, god forbid we chose the same names!! It could happen!

I'm just going to go into my pics and rummage around there to see if I have any pics of Christmas that may be of interest to you. Go for a pee... it might take me awhile.

Meet "T" that's what we call her. Her name is Taryn and she is a little dancer. She loves to dress up. Here she was just showing off the "dress up" clothes she got for Christmas.
But it soon became apparent that dancing with your eyes closed would result in a face plant with all the boxes and present debris waiting to trip her up in front of her dancing feets. She had a pretty tiara perched on her head to match the dress before the pic was taken, but .. alas that was lost in a different fall. Dancing must be done with your eyes wide open kid


Here she is trying to fire her management team. She's a little Diva .. that one.