December 25, 2015

 Joy to the World 

Christmas Day! 

December 25, 2015

What a great day of celebrations we had all day long.  I was up early, and started baking.  It was after 10:00 before the young adults were up.  The ham went in the oven and then we opened gifts.

For our morning celebration, it was just those staying at our house: David and Diana, Stephen and Kristina, and Ron and me.  We had fun opening stocking gifts and then the other gifts. 

There were lots of very nice gifts exchanged and I think everyone was delighted with their gifts.  Diana usually asks me to buy yarn for her.  She likes trying out new styles and colors of yarns and enjoys my selections.  She was working on winter caps for the Academic Decathlon team she works with at her school.

 This is the Christmas quilt I had been working on for Stephen 

and Kristina.  I actually finished it a couple of days later.

It took a long time to get all the food ready and loaded in the car, along with the gifts, to take to McAllen to our son Jeff's home there.

Dave likes sea horses so his wife gave him one.

 

In the early afternoon we went to Jeff's house and they had things about ready for our family lunch.  The food was delicious, and the family being together was great. 

The tree at Jeff and Barb's

After lunch, before dessert, we gathered around the tree for additional gift exchanges.  There were so many wonderful gifts and the children all enjoyed their things.  They had a good time and spent much of the afternoon playing with their new toys.

The spread for lunch

 

The adults spent the afternoon visiting and sharing the things going on in their lives.  I love to hear our guys together laughing and there was a lot of laughter all day.

Later in the afternoon, just before dark one of our granddaughters and I went out to the field behind the house so she could feed the horse.  The horse belongs to the brother of the man who owns the field, but the children feed it for him.  They are learning what is involved in horse ownership. 

Early evening we had some leftovers for supper and several of the young people decided to go to the movie of the new Star Wars film.  Some had already seen it but wanted to go again.  Later Ron and I headed home and the movie goers came together a couple of hours later.

Late in the afternoon, the grandchildren decorated cupcakes and made little decorations that looked like mugs of hot chocolate, out of marshmallows and little candy canes.

Hot chocolate mug decoration on a cupcake

 

It was a good day and I think everyone enjoyed being together a lot!

Our granddaughter feeding the horse.