What's new

Christmas Wrap Up ! Pad Patter 12.25

bellbird

bellbird

Well-Known Member
Pollywog
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Messages
17,365
So how did it all go? Feel free to share your culinary triumphs, wonderful surprises & disappointments (keeping it real ;) )

Will be back after coffee
 
Our kids received what feels like an entire library. They love all their books. Hubby liked my silly wrapped gift, hooray! And I received planner goodies (stickers, washi, pens) that I was quite pleased with. I think it was a pretty good one.
 
We had a WONDERFUL family day yesterday. I spent the day with my three sons and their wives/girlfriend and seven of my eight grandchildren! It was a present free day (except for Grandma buying for the 3 youngest ones) so everyone agreed it had been super stress-less leading up to the day as we didn't have worry about what to buy etc. We all contributed something to our Christmas lunch (cold meats and salads and yummy desserts) and just sat around and talked and laughed. It's the first year where EVERYONE was on the same page in regards to presents and we all agreed that that is what we will be doing in the future. We all just had a blast with being together. This Mum/Grandma was super happy!!

The only disappointment....... my daughter couldn't get home for Christmas due to work and my eldest grandson arrived home very late Christmas Eve, had a few drinks with his mates which ended up a very late night so he didn't even make an appearance! LOL! boys! but hoping to catch up with him over the next few days.
 
We had Christmas Eve with my mother/brothers, Christmas Day with husband's family and then tomorrow (26th) we will have Christmas with my husband/2 children/9 grandchildren so honestly I am a little tired of Christmas and I still have another day.

Hubby and I bought Apple phones back in October so we did not buy each other anything for Christmas - all is good in that regards because after 38 years we just buy what we want throughout the year.
 
Had a wonderful day with all 3 of my children, both grandchildren, and my mom here most of the day! That seems to almost never happen lately with their work schedules and everything else going on. We ate ourselves silly, exchanged gifts, and laughed a lot. I gave my oldest a record player/turn table this year and it was hilarious watching the kids try to figure out how to work it once I went and pulled out some old albums. They were like "how do you know what song you're playing?", "how do you choose a song you want to hear?" It was a great day!! I actually did not take that many photos this year, I just enjoyed being in the moment most of the time :)
 
I had a better Christmas than anticipated. :beat

Things are tight right now so we were only able to get the kids a few gifts each. My daughter is 7 and all Santa, all the time so I thought for sure she'd be disappointed but she came downstairs to the tree and said, 'Wow! So many gifts!' I almost cried.

My family always goes overboard & spoils my kids, and today was no different. My daughter got so many craft & Lego & drawing kits (all of her faves) & my son got literally 15 different little cars & trucks that he played with nonstop after opening them. There was so much food, too, and we took most of the leftovers home with us as no one else wanted them.

We made plans with my sister to have a gurls' pajama party with DD & me (we all got new PJs and slippers from my mom & dad) over NYE weekend so I'm looking forward to that, too!

There were only two bad things: DH was feeling ill enough that he went home after lunch (and didn't eat any to start with) but seems to be feeling better now & the mac 'n' cheese I made got all dried out when it was being reheated in the oven so NO ONE ate it & I now have 5 lbs. of mac 'n' cheese that DH can't eat (not GF) and DS won't eat. DD and I will eat it a couple more times & then I'll have to freeze it, give it away, or throw it away. I hate when that happens.

Best of all I got a photo of the kids in their coordinating Gymbo outfits in front of the Christmas tree AND they are BOTH looking at the camera and BOTH smiling! #priorities #scrappergoals
 
I made Julie's Mac & Cheese and it great! My parents spent the day with us. I forgot to put the ham in the oven before church, but that worked out okay as we took a really long time to open presents, like 2 hours. We do them one at a time and enjoy each person's reaction to each gift. I got lots of nice things.

Took lots of pictures and the kids took pictures of me too. yay!

It was a very good day. Perhaps the only disappointment is that we are leaving tomorrow for the in-laws and dd and I will not have time to cook and bake with our new toys until we get back home.
 
It was a LOT better than I thought it would be, we had a great time ate so much on 24th and 25th, laughed and had quiet time... I havent got my energy now to write as I had to take sleeping pillls so now am almost leaving, but trying to make all the pages :)
 
We had a wonderful Christmas with my daughter and sil who moved back from NZ this year. It was amazing to celebrate with them at home for the first time in seven years.
 
We had a quiet day. It was busy and I did a ton of cooking (turkey and a rib roast), but only my grandma and uncle joined us for dinner, so there was a lot less stress in that regard. My Instant Pot helped with making the mashed potatoes a simple process (thanks to all of you enablers out there). :) My daughter was out of sorts because it was the first time she's been home for Christmas in the past 7 years, so she was kind of funky and had an attitude for awhile, but luckily it didn't last long.

Kennedy was blown away with his electronic drum kit. The good thing is that it didn't come with speakers, so he has to wear headphones to hear it (until he buys speakers). He ended up not feeling very well part way through the day, so that was sort of disappointing, but it was a low-key day, so it was okay.

I was ready for bed by 8. LOL.
 
So many smiles, my jaws literally ache. All my kids were home for Christmas eve. My oldest and his wife, were just precious. My second son (the lost soul) had me laughing so hard. In all his coolness, he knows he is a nerd. He got snake bit earings in his lips...horrible things, well one fell out and went down the drain. He tells the story so good, I just giggled and hugged him continuously. My daughter and her hubby came (he was so nervous and had the flu) he stayed for an hour, and couldn't do it. We brought him home and Annabo stayed. We hugged so much. She had come the day before and seriously, her and I sat for two hours hugging and crying on the couch. So much healing my heart can't even bring the emotions to words.
She told me and her dad, that it was the best present to know thru all she has put us thru, that we still love her and her hubby. yep, lots of tears.
They stayed for hours, (we did a NO cell phone rule) and had food and laughter. They are all pretty poor, so we did small gifts for them, so not to be guilt producing, but still fun.
They watched their little brother's open the obligatory new jammies and small toy. Pure delightful
Christmas morning, my boys slept until 730!!! woo hoo...we opened presents and giggled. We had church in the morning, but the boys had Children's Church for a pajama party, so no worries about that. It was pure awesome. WE came home, and I took a 2 hour nap!! Dinner was at Del Taco...bhahahha and then our evening service was the Children's Choir and a small sermon. jUst a lovely day.
 
AnneofAlamo said:
Dinner was at Del Taco...bhahahha
Click to expand...

Oh my gosh! MINE TOO!!!!!

My 6 year old slept in my brother's room with me. He woke up, partially due to the cat yowling, at 6:45am. Ugh! But the two of us dragged the 70" tv that was my dad's gift down the stairs into the living room for him. Then we went back upstairs. I made him hang out, and wait until the other kids woke up. He played with the cat, I went back to sleep. At 7:45am the other boys woke up, so we all headed downstairs and had our cereal. Then opened presents. Then about noon my kid and I piled into the car with my brother and his fam and headed home. Of course, the freeway hadn't been plowed in one county, so that was scary! But then it was clear and easy the rest of the way. Of course, nothing was open, except a gas station or two. We ended up not eating again until 7pm at night when we drove around and found Del Taco was open! Then went back home and opened our presents. A crazier Christmas than normal, but good.

It's weird. I've had so many Christmases where DH and/or I had to work, so I had a happy nothing was open today vs. starving why isn't something open! feeling.
 
Ours started out a little iffy. First big fight in a while. ARGH. But after that it was good. Will was here all day (well I didn't get him until noon as he doesn't drive). I bought DH a fishing cart he had wanted but looked sold out. His parents had given us money earlier and he got a bonus -- and then didn't really want anything extra from the money so when I found one with just a damaged box I was able to get it. Even in our strained relationship I wanted to do something nice for him. We did a treasure hunt and just laughed at my messy handwriting and his interpretation of the clues. He is quite pleased with it -- we had to watch him assemble it of course.
Then movies, cribbage and dinner which Jim decided to try Prime Rib since we had the extra money. He did a good job with it. @bestcee our monkey bread wasn't perfectly cooked so still working on that recipe. But it turned out good. Jim found a recipe that uses biscuits and it cooks faster and tastes better.
So overall it was a good day topped off by a little chat with Zane's girlfriend. I sent them matching cat mugs since they are both cat lovers and it's tradition to give Zane a mug and cocoa every Christmas. Definitely a good icebreaker for the far away parent of Zane she's scared to meet.
 
carilyne said:
I sent them matching cat mugs since they are both cat lovers and it's tradition to give Zane a mug and cocoa every Christmas. Definitely a good icebreaker for the far away parent of Zane she's scared to meet.
Click to expand...
This is sweet! How awesome of you to think so sweetly about a good gift!
 
bestcee said:
This is sweet! How awesome of you to think so sweetly about a good gift!
Click to expand...
Thanks. I wanted to send something home with him but he is a very private person. As in we didn't know he was dating for 8months. So I had no ideas. Letting her in on a tradition seemed a good way to include her. And she said she smiled so much her cheeks hurt. I am glad it was a way to break the awkwardness a bit.
 
Christmas was wonderful! Family, friends, food, drink, talking, time and of course gifts! I think my Mom spoils my husband more than me and the boys, it cracks me up. The delight I get from watching my husband, boys, and family open gifts is such a wonderful feeling!

The only bad thing... I walked into a door early on the morning of Christmas, so there is a lump on my head! :giggle
 
We had a wonderful christmas! We woke up to 2-3" of (more) snow! The kids were up at 6 of course! ;) They loved their gifts- we didn't go crazy this year & really only purchased books, board games & movies & a few small toys. Santa brought them their big lego set they wished for. After gifts, hubby put the turkey on the smoker & we later had dinner with just a few family members. It was perfect! We played a few games as a family & then hit the hay fairly early.

The only disappointment was that I woke up sick- super sore throat & cough... :sickie but I'm starting to feel better today at least!
 
Worst Christmas ever. Husband was sick first. Daughter #1 and I both came down with simultaneously on Christmas Eve, just after leaving daughter #2's home. Still sick today. Haven't eaten much except crackers and toast. At least I'm drinking more today. I took a total of 30 pictures. Yesterday I showed hubby how to cook the ham. He was feeling better and wanted it.
 
Back
Top