MERRY CHRISTMAS - 2009

Merry Christmas!! Today is made more special by the fact it is SNOWING!! The last time I experienced snow on Christmas Eve was likely in 1965 when I still lived in Wisconsin (we moved to Texas in 1966).

Christmas will be very low-key this year, as has become the norm. It will only be Harry, Janelle, Ross, and me. We will go to Mass today at 4 p.m. and then come back to my house where I will fix the Christmas Eve dinner. This year we are having Tur-duc-hen. Tomorrow morning I will fix breakfast, at which time we will be rejoined by Harry and Janelle so we can open gifts, and then switch houses for Christmas Dinner at Harry's house. Unhurried. Uncomplicated.

The picture below shows the new Christmas decor I made for the kitchen table. Sadly, I only had 2 cloth placemats to my name and decided it was time to change that. (Up until this year I always protected the table from the boys with a vinyl tablecloth. No longer.) One of the 2010 vows will be to make more placemats and tablerunners for my kitchen. Janelle helped make the decisions on which prints and colors. Thank you, Janelle, for your invaluable input.

We put the Christmas tree in a different location this year. It has always been in the diagonally opposite corner, necessitating the rearranging of furniture so that our backs weren't to the tree. Now we can sit comfortably in the chairs to enjoy package opening.

Break time is over. Back to the kitchen I go. I'm making broccoli soup at the moment. Already have the corn casserole assembled and all the pre-dinner snacks ready to put out. I feel organized, but doubt that is the case. I am probably forgetting the most important thing!

And finally, as penned in 1843 by Charles John Huffam Dickens in his ageless, heartwarming tale of redemption, "God bless us every one!"

Until I share the next pictures....