Christmas Day around here was lazy - centered around family and food. LOTS of food!
We always have a traditional, heart-attack-waiting-to-happen breakfast on Christmas morning - bacon, fried eggs, and buttered toast. I ate so much that I still wasn't very hungry when Christmas dinner rolled around: non-traditional smoked brisket, chicken, and sausage.
Of course, that might have been due to the chocolate chip cookies I baked (and ate) before dinner. Those were mainly for TG, because after dinner I made cyclops cookies - the ones the rest of us are addicted to but she can't eat because of the peanut butter.
Our kitchen island was already laden with gift cookies from friends, and some gingerbread people I couldn't pass up at the store earlier this week (that's another odd thing I blame on menopause...until this year I wouldn't have looked twice at store-bought gingerbread - this year I couldn't resist them!)
We spent a lot of time on the phone talking to family - understandable considering Tommy couldn't be here and Tom has eight brothers, scattered around the country. I was on the phone two or three times with my family alone!
Here's a picture of my three kids "together" on Christmas day.
Tom and I took a walk to work off some of the food. Santa brought me the zoom lens I wanted, so we played around with it. I finally captured Max's goofiness and Tom took some of me (hopefully not looking QUITE as goofy as Max. It looks more like summer than Christmas day, doesn't it?)
In the afternoon, Daniel and I watched a very different Santa Claus movie from around 1959. Brenda had remembered taking me to the Capitan just before Christmas for several years to watch it when we were younger. This summer she googled "Santa, devil, and Merlin" and Poof! there it was.
It didn't ring a bell when she first told me about it, but while I watched it, suddenly some parts were VERY familiar - the memories had been hidden in some recess of my mind, buried under all kinds of other odds and ends.
It was fun digging them out and brushing them off after so many years. And I realize even more how lucky I am to have a sister like Brenda...she must have really loved me to sit through that movie every year! (She was old enough to realize how corny it was!)
Later, Tom and I watched "A Christmas Story". I don't think that one needs any explaining, but just in case..."You'll shoot your eye out!"
I ran today while watching "Mama Mia". I couldn't get anyone in my family to watch it with me! We watched "The Dark Knight" again recently, and I've decided I prefer "MamaMia" - it just makes me smile so much!
Tom is in Dallas right now, fetching Tommy and his car. They've got it on the trailer and are preparing to pull out. I'll be praying a lot in the next few hours. I think I'll go finish watching "Mama Mia" - maybe it'll keep my mind off of them.
Tomorrow (well, maybe Sunday), tune in for "Christmas Celebration Part 2: Tommy's Home"...
