CHRISTMAS

Hello, friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  Blogmas is over but the Christmas and New Year posts continue.

Christmas morning was not good for me.  Just being honest here.  I was totally not prepared to go away.  I still had so much to do in the house.  And I couldn't find things.  I was trying to straighten up while throwing things around to find the missing items.  I finally broke down and cried.  It was not a good time.  But we finally got everything wrapped and packed up and on the road an hour later than we had planned.

We had an easy trip to Northern New Jersey except for one intersection where a car decided to just cross the highway with oncoming traffic (including me) headed right at him.  It was only by the grace of God that we weren't killed.  You can't just stop the car on a dime when you are going 55 mph with a lot of traffic around you also going that fast.  I was able to change lanes at the last minute and miss him by inches.  Thank you, God!  This is why we always pray before leaving the house.

But we got to my sister Elaine's house with no other problems and fairly light traffic.  It was good to finally be there.

We arrived in daylight, but I have to show you a picture of her pretty house at night.  The lights are perfect.  The room lit up is the living room where Joe and I were.

Elaine made us the most delicious dinner of oven fried chicken, herbed new potatoes, asparagus and Hawaiian rolls.  My mouth wanted more when my stomach said stop.  She gave us some to bring home and we will have it for dinner tomorrow.

Of course we had our Christmas crackers.  So fun, although the crowns, jokes, and prizes were not as good as last year.  I got a magnifying glass, Joe a jumping frog and Elaine a spinning top.  Here's a picture of Elaine and Joe pulling Elaine's cracker and one of Joe wearing his crown.

After dinner we opened gifts.  Such nice things everyone got.  Of course Elaine's dog, Ace, had to get in on things.

Elaine gave me a cookbook for my air fryer and a cool burlap bag that opens into a basket to hold all my cookbooks.  I love it and know just where I am going to put it in my kitchen.

She gave Joe a shirt he wanted.

Every year Elaine gives us a treat for New Year's Eve.  But this year was tremendous.  She put a basket together for us with crackers, cheese, salami, chocolate, mints, nuts, tea and I don't remember what else.  I love it so much!

Her tree was one of the most beautiful trees I had ever seen.

And she had a beautiful angel on the top.

Joe gave Elaine a decorated egg on a pedestal that when opened revealed a nutcracker.  It was also a music box that played the Dance of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite.

A bag of goodies for Joe from Elaine.

Our friend, Chrissy, gave Elaine the cutest gift.  It was a mug that said I love my dog, a box of hot chocolate mix, and a mug of chocolate with marshmallow dog chew toy.  Adorable!

Another picture of me with the basket Elaine made for us.

Here is Ace with one of his balls.  We got him three red and green balls for Christmas.  Ace loves balls.  I mean LOVES balls!

Ace wanted to see everything that was going on.

And he kept jumping into Joe's lap and licking his entire face.

We watched TV after we were finished and of course had to see our traditional movie -- A Christmas Story.  Each of us likes a different part of it and waits for our special part to show up.

By this time we were all beat, so Joe went to bed first.  Elaine and I stayed up and talked awhile but soon it was time for bed for us too.

I will tell you about the next day tomorrow and show you what Joe gave me.  I still have not had time to photograph them.  I am so tired today that I have done nothing.  But we have a Christmas party to go to tonight with Joe's veterans group so I have to get myself together for that.  At least I don't have to cook!

I'll see you later.  Have a good night everyone.

Kathy