Saturday, January 2, 2016

December 23 - 24, 2015

Pre-Christmas Preparations
December 23-24, 2015



The last week has been so busy that I am a little over a week behind on my blog entries.  The holiday celebrations were great and I could not have asked for them to be any better.  I guess the only thing that would have made them better would have been to have the one son and his wife here who could not come this year and to have had Diana's niece and nephew with us, also.

Every year or rather every holiday, I tell the kids that I will take what I can get in terms of their visits.  If they can only come for one day, I will enjoy the time we have and do all I can to help them enjoy that time to the fullest.  It is a long trip for a couple of the boys and their wives.  For one it is one long day of driving and for the other it is two days each way of driving.
 Gift wrapping
 
Wednesday we went to the office as usual and it was quiet all week.  People were spending their money on Christmas and not on locks and keys.  I had paper work to do and Ron had a couple of short jobs to tend to. 

There was still grocery shopping and gift shopping to finish and gift wrapping to do.  I left the office early on Wednesday to finish some of those activities.  I have to admit that I was shopping until almost the last minute on Thursday.  This year I was very disorganized in the gift giving area.  Our son in Dallas and his wife are having some remodeling done on their house and I knew they didn't have room for "things" this year, since most of their things are in storage while the remodeling is being done.  It wasn't until Christmas eve that I found out something that his wife wanted, that they could handle until the remodeling is finished.
 Gifts started piling up under the Christmas tree.
 
Wednesday evening our son and his wife from Dallas arrived late, and we had held supper for them.  This was their first visit since their wedding.  It was so good to have them here and they were able to stay for about a week.
 Diana, David, and my brother-in-law, Jim at Christmas Eve supper

Thursday, I spent most of the day in the kitchen when I was not shopping.  I was preparing salads and desserts for Christmas dinner at our son's home in McAllen.  I baked pies and cookies as well as making homemade candies.  I had a ham to bake for Christmas dinner also.

Ron's mother was not feeling well and he kept checking on her as he could.  She was not planning to go to McAllen with us but I had hoped to get a meal to her.  She said just to bring leftovers from McAllen.

Our son and his wife from San Antonio arrived Thursday afternoon and supper that evening was at my mom's house.  She had a meal of Mexican food for us as is tradition for so many in South Texas.  We had tamales, beans, rice, chips and dips, as well as salad and dessert.  Our daughter-in-law Diana's aunt and uncle joined us for supper at Mom's.  They are newly retired, and were spending a little time at South Padre Island, so they were invited to join us for festivities. 
Diana and her aunt and uncle
 
We all had a great time at Mom's and it was good to all be together.  Our son and his wife always spend Christmas eve with his wife's family, but Christmas day with us.  That arrangement works well for me!

What a busy two days I had!  So many things to be done and things I wanted to do.  Having family with us is the high point of the activities and of course celebrating the birth of our Savior is the most important part of the whole Christmas season.

2 comments:

  1. In the first photo, candles with "snow" around them-----I was told later that
    the packing peanuts that I used for snow are very flammable !!! Won't do that
    again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Diana's aunt and uncle were delightful guests! So happy they could join us.

    ReplyDelete