Christmas Eve Recap

I hope you had a Merry and Blessed Christmas!  We did at our house.  As has been our tradition since the early 1980's [when my mother-in-law passed the baton to me to continue the Christmas Eve family gathering] everyone arrived around 3:00 o'clock.  Well almost everyone - granddaughter Ellie had the stomach flu so Jeremy stayed home with her.

With working 12 days straight at The Whitney, I was so behind this year and didn't get my tree decorated until Dec. 23rd - cutting it very close to the wire!

Usually I serve dinner buffet style by setting up a long food table in the family room, but this year I decided to serve my family restaurant style in courses and even though we aren't Italian, our meal was.

We began with homemade creamy Minestrone soup, followed by a garden salad [Olive Garden style with their salad dressing and croutons].  The next course was a side of Spaghetti with meat sauce, and the main entree was Chicken Cordon Bleu, Green Beans, and Corn Pudding.  I bought Italian bread and bread sticks from the local Italian bakery. Dessert, served later in the evening, was our birthday cake for Jesus - a Cassata Cake and a chocolate cake [the grandkids favorite].

Izzy and Papa in their red buffalo checked tops.

~ Jerry and Me ~

~ Landon, Samantha and Izzy ~

~ Sharon, Brooke and Brianna ~

~ Steve and Sharon ~

Steve, Sharon and Girls.  It's been nice having Brianna home for three months, but she leaves Sunday morning to head back to Nashville to begin another semester of her graduate studies.

I have to brag on her talents - below is the drawing she gave her mother for Christmas.

~ Lori and Dave ~

After dinner, Izzy read the Christmas story from Luke's Gospel.

Then it was time to open presents from youngest to oldest.  Landon LOVED his 'Comfy' blanket/hooded sweatshirt from Brooke and Brianna.  Izzy got one too.

~ Brooke ~

~ Lori and Dave waiting their turn ~

Being the oldest, Jerry and I were the last ones to open our gifts.  I'll share my gifts in a separate post.

After gifts we had dessert.  Lori made a tray of decorated sugar cookies which we enjoyed in addition to cake.  Then we played games around the dining room table.  Everyone stayed until around 11:00 o'clock, and then our house suddenly fell silent and Papa and I settled in for a long winter's nap! ;-)  It was a very fun family time together, but we definitely missed Jeremy and Ellie.

Today [Thursday] is a work day for me so I'll be heading off to The Whitney after enjoying four days off.   Christmas Day next post.