To begin with, we were supposed to be in San Antonio celebrating with Johnny's family. I was sorry the blizzard messed up those plans but we'll be there for New Year's and this way, my Mom wasn't alone on Christmas day.
Last night we visited our neighbors, Bill & Shirley who had all their kids and grandchildren with them. Mom and Bill & Shirley are good friends - Mom is always making soup or meat loaf and taking it over to them. We had a lovely time with them...first time we've met their family. Their two sons, Bill Jr. and John, both have newborns who were absolutely adorable. Mom bought presents for all the kids - she was like Santa, handing them out. The babies, of course, knew nothing, but I think their mothers appreciated the little baby outfits.
After that, Johnny and I went to Mass...we usually do the midnight service but I was just too tired so we went to the 9:00. We went early and they had a carol sing ahead of time that was a lot of fun. The service was beautiful and we were pleased to see Father Richardson there - he's been recovering from back surgery and is still in a wheelchair.
This morning we woke up early - had coffee at our desks until we heard the "pitter patter" of feet upstairs (Mom and the dog)! We ran up to get the holiday started - and I baked cinnamon buns...the cheat kind in the roll, but hey, they're still good. It's still snowy outside since there was so much of the stuff last week...so for the first time in years, it was a white Christmas and despite what some people may think, a white Christmas is NOT overrated! I'm loving it! The sky is gray and we are expecting ice (Booooooo) today but no precip so far. Mom placed calls to my sister and my brothers and step-brother. We ate cinnamon rolls. Then she opened her presents. It's funny how sometimes she seems like a kid to us...at some point in your life, you just seem to revert and instead of getting older, she often seems much like a child and so much more so at Christmas when everyone is a kid anyway. So she had lots of presents to open because we all like her to have presents to unwrap. It was quite a haul between the 5 of us kids giving her stuff.
When I baked the rolls, I realized the oven was dirty from the apple pie I made yesterday...so I decided to clean the oven, not realizing that you can't even use the burners when the oven is self cleaning....I shut it completely down when there was 2 hours remaining because I really wanted to eat dinner before 10:00 tonight. Now things are simmering and roasting as they should be. I'm cheating on the stuffing (Stovetop) but I saute onions and celery so the house smells like it does when I actually make the stuffing.
We watched The Nutcracker, which I had bought the last time we were at the Kennedy Center - it's the Mikail Baryshnikov version...can't believe I'm 53 years old and have never seen this ballet...or for that matter, any ballet. It was marvelous...the dancing is incredible! We'll have to make an effort to see one at the theater.
Johnny is shoveling off the deck - we never got around to that and Mom just went to take a nap. I'm going to go check the turkey.
Merry Christmas and God Bless us all!
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