December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas to All,

And to All a Good Night.

December 25, 2014

At the end of this very nice Christmas day, "Good night" is about all I can say.  I am tired!  So this blog will be finished tomorrow.

What a day.  I know that Christmas is about the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Along with that, we all want to spend the day together - the more, the merrier.  The more there are, the more the food preparation takes center stage.  It is not that we are obsessed with food, but we love to all be together around a table, talking and laughing, and food becomes necessary.  It becomes a part of the celebration; there is the desire to make the time together very special and special events bring to mind special foods.

My morning was filled with food preparation.  Ron and I opened our gifts to each other and the ones from those away from here.  Then while I chopped apples Ron had peeled and made the dressing for the apple salad, got my shower, and finished a couple of things at the sewing table, he went to his Mom's house.  His mother LOVES to read and he had bought her a Kindle for Christmas and was taking time to show her how to use it.  Thankfully, her helper who is there 4 hours each day said she could probably help her with it.  That will be great.  He had loaded it with a lot of books by her favorite authors.  She was delighted.

While he was gone I had also gathered all the things we needed to take to our son's house: the food and the gifts, the camera, and the ice cream maker.  We had come up with a new recipe that Ron and I devised - Candy Cane Sherbet.  H.E.B. had produced a Candy Cane soda this year in a limited offering.  Taking my recipe for Strawberry Sherbet which is 2 cans of Eagle Brand milk and 6 cans of strawberry soda along with fresh or frozen strawberries, we switched the strawberry soda for the candy cane soda and crushed some old fashioned soft mint sticks (to replace the strawberries) and came out with a great "sugar shock" sherbet! 

We garnished the top of each bowl with some of the crushed soft mint sticks.

When Ron got back we loaded the car and left to pick my mom up to go with us to Jeff and Barb's for the rest of the day.  Ron's mom did not want to go.  She is not feeling very well these days.  She has more and more trouble getting up and walking, but continues to love to sew and read.  We arrived about 1:15 and lunch was scheduled for 2:00.  Just a couple of minutes after 2:00 we were putting the yummy food on the buffet line on the kitchen counter.  Barbara had invited a single mom and her daughter to join us but they had gotten sick and were not able to come.  The day was just the 12 of us: Jeff and Barb and their 7 children, Ron, me, and my mom.  The baby (3 yrs. old) had a cold and was quieter than usual so the day was quieter than  most of our gatherings.  The children had new toys to play with and were scattered throughout the house, leaving the adults with some quiet conversation time.

Mom and the "baby" of the bunch having a discussion.

Lunch was delicious and the time together couldn't be beat!  After lunch we cleared the dishes and started the sherbet in the ice cream maker so it could run while we opened gifts around the tree.  There are times you know you made a right choice.

 The castle blocks in the photo below, became a hit with all the kids.

Following the gift opening, we had our desserts.  They were all yummy.  Each person had their favorite.  For Jeff it was the Spritz cookies (the green Christmas trees). 

For his wife, it was the coconut macaroons (on the left of the tray below).  Most of the children preferred the ones on the right with a Hershey chocolate kiss hidden inside.

Two of the grandchildren love the Leche Quemada (upper part of photo), and while I love it, yesterday I was partial to the Coca Cola cake made with Dr. Pepper (lower part of photo).

We cleaned the kitchen and visited for a while longer and left just after dark.  We went to Ron's mom's house and I left Ron there while I took my mom home and took her things into the house.  I returned to Ron's mom's house and Jeff, Barb and four of the children came Christmas caroling. 

Barb guided the group through 4 or 5 songs and they were greatly appreciated.  They stayed to visit for about 30 minutes, but it soon became obvious that all of us, including Ron's mom, were tired.  We came home and unloaded the car.  David had called just as we got home and I talked to him after I helped unload the car.  Following that, in no time I was asleep.  Later in the evening we talked to Stephen and Kristina, and Bob and Vickey.  It was a wonderful day.  We missed not having everyone home as we did last year, but it was still a wonderful day!