Christmas 2012

I got up early on Christmas morning and made a couple of sausage and cheese quiche for us to have for breakfast. I also pulled apart the bread dough for the rolls we would be having for Christmas dinner. I then took a shower and got ready for the day and loaded up the car with presents and The Tide and put the dressing in the oven so it would start cooking while I was away.

On Christmas Eve we had decided to do Christmas at 9:00 a.m. and so The Tide and I arrived a few minutes before 9:00 and found the only person up and about was my dad and he was in a panic because he had lost $230 that his congregation had collected for one of the members as a Christmas gift. He and I looked for the money for about 45 minutes, going through the trash and every other place he could think of and we never found it.

Finally around 10:00 a.m. we all made it into the den to begin our family Christmas. It was a really good Christmas for everyone I think. My dad was surprised by a few of his gifts which is always nice and my mother and Justin liked their gifts as well. I was blessed with a lot of nice things, all of which were on my list and one awesome surprise - a Le Creuset 4 and 1/2 quart dutch oven. I have wanted one of these for years but they are so expensive that I never put it on my list. Earlier this year, the 4 and 1/2 quart dutch oven was on sale for a sweet price at Williams-Sonoma and I had told my mom about it. They sold out online and she told me that they had sold out and I didn't think anything else about it. My sneaky mother called the store here in town and asked if they had one for the same sweet price and they did so she got it. It was such a nice surprise and I cannot wait to put it to use.

After we opened gifts, I took some trash out to the street, my dad got busy in the kitchen and mother and Justin went to put their things away. I then left, taking The Tide with me. She was not feeling well and I thought it would be best if she weren't around over 20 Parkers later in the day.

When I got home, I cooked the rolls and made sure the dressing was done and around 1:15 headed back to my parents' house for the remainder of our Christmas festivities. We had a really good dinner and then played dirty Santa. I ended up with two Pyrex casserole dishes that have Parker engraved in the side. My aunt brought these and she ended up with one of them and just gave it to me. Her dirty Santa experience was much like mine was the week before. I brought a gift for Justin to play and he ended up with another Starbucks card. He was kind enough to buy me an eggnog latte the day after Christmas.

Most everyone left around 5:00 and my aunt and I left around 6:00 when the winds started picking up and it began lightning outside. It was quite windy and stormy Christmas night and there were tornadoes in the southern part of the state. Thankfully, there was no storm damage around Huntsville.

So, Christmas, much like Thanksgiving, was peaceful and a lot of fun. It was a great day with my family and I hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did.