Twas' the Day AFTER Christmas...And Savoring the Sweet Memories

 

Hello friends in Blogland...Merry Day AFTER Christmas to everyone! If you're like me, you've probably been recuperating, restoring, reclaiming your space and trying to put things back into some kind of order on the day after Christmas, especially if you hosted Christmas at your home.  And even if you went somewhere else for Christmas day, there's always a sense of trying to get things back in place and put away on the day after.   I don't mean things like taking down the tree or decorations...I hope no one is doing that already, although I know there are some who do...I can just barely move and breathe the day after Christmas, so to even THINK about taking things down and putting things away is like one of those "no way Jose'" kind of thoughts...I need to time to rest and savor the memories before I can start dismantling everything.  That, plus the fact that I am still recuperating from this bad cold or flu or whatever it was has left me with little energy to go on.  I am VERY thankful to the Lord for giving me the extra oomph I needed the day before to get through the wrapping and baking and preparations for our family celebration, but I did have to miss the Christmas Eve service at our church. I was still having too many coughing fits to be in close proximity to people, so it was another disappointment that I had to miss, but my body said "thankyou" for not being pushed to go. (And I'm sure the people appreciated the fact that I was not there spreading germs).

We were SO thankful our son Scott came home Wednesday afternoon and spent the night...and that he baked cookies for the family!! Hooray!

This is my mother's special Orange Cookie recipe that she always baked anytime she knew the family/grandkids were coming to visit.  Thankfully now Scott does this for our family gatherings as his gift to the family. Click HERE for a link to another story about this and the recipe)

Christmas morning was sunny and beautiful...A perfect day to celebrate the Birthday of our Savior and Lord!

And when I went out to put out the flag, look who came to greet me! Blackie was watching for me from the tree and came down out of the tree and ran up on the porch as soon as he saw me come out the door! I love that he went to the doormat that says: Believe!  A happy way to begin our Christmas morning...

And even though there are no pictures, I did scoop him up and took him inside to greet Daddy and wish him a Merry Christmas!  And then after he had a little tour of the living room all ready for our Christmas morning to begin, he was sent back outside to enjoy the day and keep out of harms' way.

Primarily because the two Grandpups, Sugar and Spice were coming to spend the day, and we don't think having them all in the same space at the same time would be a good idea!  Here they are opening their new toys...some squawking rubber chickens, which I tried to make the "parents" take home with them, but they said no, since I bought them for them, the toys should stay HERE! LOL!

They did have fun trying to figure out how to make them squawk!

They also had fun helping Grandpa open his gifts...

It was so wonderful to have our family gathered here together...here's Rose and Benton...

And Scott...

And your's truly sitting on hubby's lap...which involved a lot of hooting and hollering when I sat down on him and we laughed about the chair feeling like it was about to break...but I managed to stay there until the picture was taken...

And then there were some very special gifts.  I am so thankful for our talented family...

Here Scott is opening a wonderful gift created by his brother Benton for him...it's a collection cabinet for his Camaro car collection, and he put pictures from some of Scott's old Camaro calendars  in the background.  Scott loves Camaros and has had several over the years, so it's something that he will definitely treasure...

And hooray, I was given one of Benton's Nativity scenes that he builds and sells.  I was afraid I was going to have to buy one if I wanted! LOL.

And this is another special project.  I will tell you more about this in a future post, but it's something I've been waiting for for a while and he finally got around to doing it.  You may recognize those as old sewing machine cabinet drawers. Yes, that's what they are. But you will have to wait until he finishes the WHOLE project before I can show you the rest.  It's a work in progress.

And Scott shared more of his art talents with Benton and Rose.  These little paintings are some that he did  as "fingerpaints", using leftover screen printing ink when he used to work at a screen printing shop.  They are very uniquely created, and he wanted family members to have some of his original artwork for when he becomes a famous artist someday...You just never know what the Lord may have in store...

And it was fitting that Benton and Rose gave Scott some Bob Ross socks! LOL.

After gifts were opened it was time for dinner...ham, scalloped potatoes, butternut squash and green peas... Rose did most of the cooking. (I microwaved the frozen peas...does that count?)

Well, I did make both of these jello salads...hubby wanted the green one that has pineapple, cottage cheese, nuts, cherries, and other stuff in it to make it good, and the kids wanted a red jello with fruit (to which I also added some whole berry cranberry sauce).  They were both good. 

And Rose also made deviled eggs...

I took a picture of Scott's plate because he had it arranged so nicely...

And then there were the family photos at the table when they wanted to start eating...

Okay, pictures over. Now we can eat!

There were some other very special little gifts...I had ordered this tree ornament back in the fall, before our sweet Sunshine went over the Rainbow Bridge, and wrapped it up to give as a gift to hubby and myself...So when I opened the package and put it on the tree, it was one of those moments that kind of caught us all off guard and we remembered our sweet Sunshine while I shed a tear or two or three...

And then Rose gave me a gift that really got to me...she had ordered this special Tervis tumbler with photgraphs on it of Sunshine and Blackie and also the Grandpups Sugar and Spice...

So of course this picture really got me.  I love the gift truly, and I will remember all our sweet furry family members when I use it. (and I'll try not to cry!)

It really is a sweet gift, and it's interesting that she and I both had similar ideas. I also gave them an ornament similar to ours with Benton and Rose  and their pups. But I forgot to get a picture of it.

There were so many special moments and gifts, also from some dear friends...And Lily Grace was not forgotten:

She received a beautiful new Christmas dress and some special toys from her sweet "identical cousin" Tracie in South Carolina...

And Lily Grace and Baby Elva enjoyed watching all the Christmas festivities together...

At the close of the day the family gathered on the front porch for a group photo before the kids had to go home...

It was certainly a day to rejoice in the birth of our Savior, and there was much JOY in the place!

I set the new nativity up on the back porch as the sun was going down on Christmas day, and I just gave thanks to the Lord for His goodness and mercy and grace...

John 1:14 KJV

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

And for God's most amazing GIFT of His Son, Who came to earth to seek and to save all who would BELIEVE.

John 3:16  KJV

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I believe. Do you?

Before I close this post, I just want to say something. There was a comment left on my previous post by what I assume was a spammer. It was another "unknown" commenter, and whoever it was left a whole page of a statement written over and over again, probably 100 times or more, and it said "I want to die", over and over and over again. Well, my first thought was it's a spammer, and I deleted it. However, my other thought was, what if it's a real person, and that's how they really feel? And so I prayed for this person or whatever it may be, because it made me feel very sad that someone had written that actually on Christmas day. I don't know if anyone else has received this message from a spammer, but yes, it was a bit unnerving. I am still praying for that person, whoever it may be, that for whatever reason they found it necessary to write that statement over and over again on my comment page, I want you to know that I am continuing to pray for you, that you will find peace in your heart, and that you will come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ, as your Savior and Lord too. He will make your life worth living. He is Emmanuel, God With Us...the Child who was born to be our Savior and Lord written about in Isaiah 9:6~

"6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Amen.

And if it is some kind of robot spammer, well, shame on whoever created it. I'll pray for you too!

Good night everyone, and may God bless you each and every one with HIS peace and love and everlasting joy!  

What A Wonderful Christmas!

 Today is the day after Christmas, and I've mostly been resting and cleaning up a bit and just trying to relax after all the activity of the past few weeks.  I have been having some back spasms that are stress related, so I took a muscle relaxer last night, thinking it would help me relax and sleep better. It didn't. It made me very groggy and dopey this morning, so after breakfast I went back to bed for about an hour and slept so soundly John had to wake me up. I decided I wasn't going to take any more muscle relaxers. They relaxed everything except my muscles. LOL.  So now, after two naps today I am finally awake enough to think about writing a post about our wonderful Christmas day!  Actually, I will just share pictures and explain as we go.

I will start with Christmas Eve.  

This was the scene in the living room right after "Santa" delivered the gifts for everyone. I know it looks like a lot, but someone here (Mr. Santa Claus) loves to give lots of little fun gifts and spread them out between many packages so it looks like a lot of gifts, but it's not exactly what one might think...and thankfully that someone helped wrap all those gifts!

Earlier in the evening our son Scott, who had arrived late the night before so he could take care of his car that is kept here before the freezing weather arrived (it's a project older Camaro...his "baby"), got busy and baked a batch of our family traditional Orange Cookies. (My mother's recipe that she always made anytime the grandchildren were coming to visit. Recipe can be found on that link).  

Oh, for those of you who are "Lily Grace" fans, she was there helping Scott ice the cookies. She is wearing her new Christmas dress that her "Auntie Debbi" in South Carolina sent her for Christmas.

Here's a better picture of her as she helped me set the table for the next day...

Now if you are a Facebook fan you may have already seen most of these pictures. But for the rest of you here's the story of our Christmas Day.  It started out with hubby and I going to Sunday School and Church, as he teaches the adult class and I sing in the choir and we help serve Communion, and so we wanted and needed to be there. It was a rather chilly experience as the heat in our antique church building just couldn't keep up with the freezing temperatures of 23 degrees in the morning,  and we had to keep our coats and gloves on all the way through church to keep warm. I think it had finally gotten above 58 degrees in the sanctuary by the time church was over. LOL. I know for many of you that is no big deal, but for us Floridians, 23 degrees on Christmas morning is a big deal!

Then we came home and started putting our Christmas dinner together. I had already prepared the  jello salad and the sweet potato casserole the night before, so it just needed to be heated, and the green beans and Stove top stuffing could be done when we got home,  and Rose was roasting the Cornish hens and other items at their house. They went to the Saturday night Christmas Eve service so they could stay home Christmas morning and prepare the rest of the food. Our friend, the other "Pamela" you will see in the pictures, brought two delicious  cream pies and Rose and baked two pies the day before. We had a very delicious dinner as you can see...

Everyone is anxious for me to quit taking pictures so they can start eating...

Scott took a picture of his plate so you could see everyone had their own personal Cornish Hen. I had never had one before, and actually Hubby and I split one so we could eat all the other stuff. It was a LOT of food, but oh so good!

 Here's the two "Pamela's"...double trouble...

And here's me with my sweet hubby...

Okay, pictures are over, now let's eat it before it gets cold!

After dinner and cleaning up the table/dishes (thank you kids for pitching in!)

we started opening gifts...Rose and Benton need calendars to keep track of time... LOL (we ALL got calendars).

I am wearing a wool skull cap, a gift from the kids for our trip to North GA mountains in January...they also got me warm socks and bathrobe and fleece pants, etc.  I should be very warm, and actually am wearing the socks and fleece pants now...it's that cold...

Scott with his pile of gifts...

And then he opened a gift from "Santa"...and all pandemonium broke loose...because ...

Rose and Benton also got the same gift from Santa...and I've never seen this side of our sweet, quiet DIL before! It was hilarious...

And poor little Baby Elva was trying to duck in her buggy to avoid the flying nerf projectiles...(yes, Elva is a doll...she was just fine...)

Rose really got into action...

But so did Scott...he had two nerf guns...

And I think I was the next target, but I managed to duck in time...

Uh oh! Daddy got one that shoots 4 nerf bullets!

And he is very cool, calm and calculating...

Benton had his gun and was doing his part, and if you notice, Rose is hiding behind the very messed up sofa!  Lily Grace is lying prostrate on the table...I think she fainted...

And our dear friend Pamela had no clue what she was getting into when she accepted the invitation to Christmas dinner...but she had a blast and said she'd be happy to come again...most fun she's had in a long time...

I think Benton was about to surrender below...Rose was holding him up from behind...

All in all a crazy but wonderful time was had by all! I should have recorded the laughter! It was pure hilarity in the house!

Then Benton and Rose remembered they had one more gift to bring in for us...actually it's for "Daddy" at my request, but I will use it too.  This beautiful vintage cedar chest was painted and refurbished by Benton from their store, Dixie Cottage, as a gift for John to put some special things in. He actually had seen it at the store before it was painted, and remarked at how much he liked it and would love to have something like that. So I told Benton behind his back to take it off the sales floor and prepare it for Daddy for Christmas as a surprise.  He was disappointed to come into the store the next day and find out that the chest had been "sold".  

But he was sure surprised to see it show up here at our house on Christmas morning with a fresh new look! I love it when we can pull off a real surprise once in a while!

After all the fun and games and gifts we had worked up enough appetite to have dessert.  So here's the pies...they were all delicious...

After all the excitement was over and everyone had gathered up their goodies and gone home, our grandson Noah called us from Maine. We were sad that he didn't get to talk to his "uncles", but there again, we were glad that we got to have him all to ourselves, and we talked for almost an hour. It was SO good to hear his voice and get caught up on all of his (& and his fianc'ee Dawn's)  goings on.  He said they had been without power for a couple of days because of the winter storm, but thankfully they have a wood stove and were able to keep warm. I told him I had been praying for all the people without power up north, that they would be safe and find warmth...and I didn't even know my own family was in that group needing prayer!  So thankful God heard our prayers and they are all fine.  I know many others in the country were not as fortunate. Quite a few people have died in this winter storm. It has truly been brutal for so many.  So I really can't complain about our 23 degrees. Our house is warm and we do not have any icy/snowy roads to contend with. Very thankful indeed.

And so, with that I will conclude our Christmas day celebrations. We truly have been blessed and are very very thankful to God for all of His provision and kindness toward us. 

And most of all for His Son, Jesus Christ our Savior...the best gift of all, Who just keeps on giving and giving!

Here are some lovely scenes on Still Waters Pond this afternoon before sunset:

The Canada Geese have been flying in and out again lately...

and then the Sand Hill Crane couple flew in for the evening and the geese immediately swam cross the pond to go welcome them:

Then the sun began to set on a beautiful day...it will go down to below freezing again by tomorrow morning, but should warm up to a balmy 57 degrees by afternoon, so we are climbing back up out of the deep freeze and we are very thankful indeed.

Oh, one more thing...speaking of ponds...I wanted to show you a sweet little gift from my sweet little DIL...first the street lamp over by the little church...

But next, the cute little tiny cabin and the red sleds...look really close at the little cabin:

There is a lady standing there on the porch with a camera in her hands, taking a picture of the skaters on the pond:

My sweet DIL found this somewhere and knew that I would love it, and she was right! First of all, my kids know that I am always taking pictures everywhere I go...and also, they know that my dream home is a log cabin...so this combination was perfect for me!  I was just so thrilled with this!

This makes for such a happy little scene...

Don't you agree?

Okay, this time I mean it...goodnight everyone!

Praying for you and yours, that you have had a blessed and beautiful Christmas, and that you are safe and warm wherever you are.

Looking forward to a Happy and hopefully warmer New Year!