On Christmas Eve we went to the 3:00 service at church. It’s always a little weird because the lighting is low indoors and you forget it’s still the middle of the day and get a shock when you walk outside. But we like going early and not being rushed for dinner.
And speaking of dinner, we had the traditional tamales.
Katy got new pajamas (and robe and slippers) and put cookies out for Santa. Buddy was convinced they were for him. First he tried jumping to get them and when that didn’t work he ran into his crate and sat and waited politely for someone to give him one. No one did. He’s doing better, though. Last year he tried to climb the fire place.
Christmas morning Buddy started barking at 7:30 and I ignored him. Finally around 8 he was pretty insistent and I figured I’d better get up and feed him. About that time Katy came into our room to say Santa had come. She said she woke up at 7:30 but made herself wait until 8. That’s pretty early for her, usually she wakes up around 8 on Christmas, even as a little kid. She likes her sleep!
Yes, there’s stuff in the stocking, it just looks empty.
After Katy checked out what Santa brought and Buddy was fed, watered, and taken out, we had a yummy breakfast of kringle. Heath’s brother-in-law drives to this particular bakery ever year and buys a stack of them. I never have to worry about Christmas breakfast.
Then we got down to the business of opening presents. Katy got the annonated 100th anniversary edition of the original Wizard of Oz. She loves the book series (all 14 of them) but isn’t too crazy about the movie. She said she likes the movie, they just got a lot of stuff wrong. She’s a purist!
Kallie left us a present. It was a book of photos of her life. Well, OK, she had some help from me. Katy had seen some of it while it was being put together but Heath had no idea what it looked like, although he knew I wanted to do one. So they enjoyed looking at that.
Buddy got a bully stick. Mostly to keep him occupied, but a nice treat for him, too. He didn’t know what to do with it at first and kept pawing at it.
Katy’s big gift was a sewing machine. She had no idea and was really surprised and excited. It’s a little more machine than she needs right now, but she’ll grow into. If anyone watches Project Runway, this is a Project Runway machine. It’s a tie-in with brother.
We got everything opened up and cleaned up. I went to take a nap after lunch but Katy had quite a productive afternoon. She got her Lego Friends Dolphin Cruiser put together. This was one of the hot toys this Christmas. I’m glad Santa snagged one early because two weeks ago you couldn’t find any of the bigger Lego Friends sets anywhere and the scalpers were asking astronomical prices. What is wrong with people?
Last year I decided to do a cold dinner for Christmas and not spend all day in the kitchen. That worked out really well, so I did it again this year. We had ham, cranberries, broccoli salad, cucumber and tomato salad, potato salad and rolls.
We used the last of the Christmas crackers last year (one box lasts us several years) and I forgot to get another box so we didn’t have those. But it was a nice dinner.
And cookies for dessert.
After dinner we went out to look at Christmas lights
Well, Christmas is over for another year. Try to forget that next month Santa’s going to send the bill!
