Welcome to Christmas 2017!
I was thinking of this quote from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" yesterday as Christmas came without me being completely ready. It's so easy to get caught up in all the hustle and bustle of the holiday. I am still disappointed that things weren't the way I wanted them to be. But the day itself more than made up for it.
Joe and I left a little later than we wanted to on Christmas Eve in order to travel the two hours to my sister's house. But we still made it before dark. She had the table in the dining room decorated so nicely with a lot of her nutcrackers. She has quite a collection and this is a small part of it.
You can see the Christmas Crackers on the table. Before we ate we had to pull the crackers. Each one holds a paper crown, a prize and a joke.
You wear the crown as you eat dinner.
Most of the time the prizes are pretty lame. But these crackers had decent prizes in them. Joe got a magnifying glass.
Elaine got a shoe horn. Frank got a mini deck of playing cards.
I got a pair of nail clippers.
The jokes are always very corny. Here's mine.
Dinner was delicious. Roast beef with gravy, potatoes and carrots and green bean casserole.
Everything was so good. That roast just melted in your mouth, it was so tender.
After we ate she put out some m&ms, yogurt raisins and peppermint in this adorable little bowl.
We were saying how pretty Christmas is and afterwards when you put things away how dull it all looks.
After we ate we headed to her church for Christmas Eve service. Her pastor is retiring so this is his last Christmas Eve there. Here's a picture of the decorated church that I borrowed from his facebook page.
I know quite a few people in her church and it was good to see them again, get some hugs and catch up on things. I miss going there and hopefully next year I will get there a few more times than I have this year.
The service was beautiful. Her congregation singing sounded like angels. The flute and recorder selection was gorgeous and the bell choir was so good. At the end everyone circled the darkened room and had a lit candle as they sang Silent Night. There were so many people they had to make a double circle. So beautiful.
It was flurrying after the service and very cold. At least to this Philly girl it was cold. We went back to Elaine's house and had hot tea and cookies and little cakes.
We were playing with Elaine's new little dog Ace.
His favorite toy is a ball. In fact, it is the only toy he will play with. He has four of them that I saw. And you HAD TO throw them to him. Really.
As we ate we watched the movie we watch every Christmas Eve -- "It's a Wonderful Life." We all have our favorite parts. Mine is where his wife has become an old unmarried LIBRARIAN! (gasp!) Ha, ha, ha!
It was getting late. The gifts were out on a table where Ace couldn't reach them.
Frank left to go home and we three got ready for bed. It was a long day and I was very glad to hunker down for the night and rest my sore knee. It was hurting a lot by this time and I wanted to be the best I could for the next day.
The story continues...
Kathy
Such a busy day! The house is gorgeous,food looks delicious & Ace is so adorable! The cracker gifts do look good. I have a magnifying glass like Joe has & absolutely LOVE it! It is my go-to for sewing & removing splinters & such.Wish I could find another one.Looks
ReplyDeletelike everyone had a good time. The candle at the end of the blog is so warming...
Oh my, I just love all the photos. Your sister really decorated everything so nicely. And her little dog is just so precious. I love the Christmas dinnerware. I almost bought a set for my daughter. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to give it another thought. It looks so nice on the table. Can't wait to read part 2 of this post. You have an awesome day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteYou had a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration for sure. The church is beautiful and I know the music sounded heavenly. The doggie is so cute and he does love his balls! Hope you got a good nights rest and were ready for yesterday, the big day. I look forward to those pictures too.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous pictures Kathy! I had a ball looking at them. I didn't realize you had another blog ... I left a message on the wrong one. Luckily I noticed this one. Hugs, Francesca
ReplyDeleteAnd a lovely story it is... Your sister’s home is charming, the church was so lovely, your descriptions are even superb. I wanted roast beef after reading this.
ReplyDeleteHow true that everything looks blahhhh after the Christmas decor comes down, which is why I shall take at least until January 6 and perhaps to February 2. ☺️
Great photos!! The pup is adorable and I am so happy you had such a good Christmas Eve!
ReplyDeleteHappy after Christmas to you, Kathy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this lovely post about how you and Joe spent Christmas Eve with family, good food and a lovely service. Thanks too for your comments on some recent blog posts of my own. I have been a bit absent from blog-dom in recent weeks, and some posts were prescheduled when we had internet access. We were "on the road" for 3 weeks from after Thanksgiving till the week before Christmas. It wasn't exactly a vacation, but more of an extended road trip that included checking the VA house and getting some minor repairs completed, then learning the closing date would not happen aa expected (extension requested). We did see friends in DC and attend the USAF band holiday concert there and attended our granddaughter's 1st birthday party in PA. While in VA we had no internet access at the house, so no time to read fellow bloggers holiday posts (drat). Thankfully, we spent Christmas in our own place for the first time in several years and that was great!
It looks like your holidays were joyous and of course there is never enough time to finish all we feel we should do, but all turns out well regardless. Hope that your knee will be feeling better and that you can rest a bit more. Sending best wishes that the coming new year holds wonderful surprises in store (all good).