The after Christmas blahs

Here it is the Sunday after the big day, I haven't seen any of our girls and their families since yesterday morning. That's when the Prathers came to pick up Julia, who had spent the night with us. But since then, no one!

This is after three days of non-stop family. We started Christmas Eve with the Clarks at the Prathers where we enjoyed Darrell's enchilada casserole. Then we met at the Talaricos to open presents. The next morning it was back over to the Talaricos for Christmas brunch of egg and sausage casserole and sticky buns. Now that was two days of goooooood eatin' and goooooood fun! The next day it was back to the Prathers to enjoy some N. Carolina BBQ that one of Darrell's clients sends him every year. Again, yum.

Now after all of that, no one invited us for a meal all day yesterday (well, HJ did bring me two Dunkin chocolate filled donuts when she picked up Julia) or today. That meant that today Jimmy and I had to eat the leftovers that we had from yesterday's lunch at Chedders.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention that it was Madeleine's birthday on Christmas day, so after brunch, we helped her celebrate (and eat her "cake" that was actually Scotch-a-roos shaped in an 18 and covered with chocolate icing).

Ok, ok, ok. I'm just kidding about the blahs but not about the fun and good food that we both enjoyed with the girls and their families. We have three daughters, three sons in law, and 7 grandchildren, ages 5 to 19. Now that's a great family!

Christmas cards

Today is actually the 22.

Getting back to those Christmas cards...I saw an example of the candy cane a couple of years ago, and only had some tiny rick rack (ric rac ?) and only one color, black. When it looked like you know what, I said to myself, "Myself," I said, "the only reason that it's hard to do and looks so crappy is because the rick rack is tiny and black."

Then without another thought about them, I decided the first week of December that I was going to make the canes for my cards. Long story, short...Yes, the color looked good, but they were very hard to make, and they were VERY time consuming. Those little suckers twisted up and flipped around even after I glued them. I did like the final outcome, but next year the card is going to be a lot simpler. And if anyone actually does read this, PLEASE remind me about the "simpler" cards the second week of next Dec!

I HAVE BEEN BUSY

It's really the 17th today.

Not really BUSY, just needing to be busy. Thank goodness I have several weeks to finish my Christmas cards, right?

Ok, Ok, Ok. I realize that it is only two weeks until Christmas. But good news...I finished all of them today, even have the stamps on each envelope.

Bless my heart, this is why I couldn't have a job any more. I started this SEVERAL days ago. I mailed my cards, and I have a cold. Soooo I don't really have much I can do, not that blogging isn't my first priority.

The problem isn't that I'm lazy, tho I am. It isn't that I'm busy because I'm not. It's just that often times when I'm in the middle of something, something shiny catches my eye and well, you know. Multiply that by the 5 things I start most days...

I'm going to hurry and post this before the shiny things come by...

The new president of the UDems

Tonight Jimmy was elected the president of the University Democrats on the UT campus. He will be spending time at the capitol and having the time of his life.

How proud am I of him! And what a good job he will do!

The Real Thanksgiving Picture

These are the pictures for this year. I've already told you about the day, so...

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was a major fun day as usual (not to mention delicious!). We all went to HJ's and Darrell's for a late dinner.

Ok, get ready...Darrell baked the turkey, chestnut dressing and gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with made from scratch marshmallows, and a new entry: broccoli rice casserole. HJ made an apple pie, and had her hand in everything else, I'm sure.

Tam and Mark brought the green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with a crunchy pecan topping, and Tam's pumpkin cake. They also brought veggie turkey, dressing, and gravy since everyone is their family is now vegaterian.

Pen brought a pecan and a buttermilk pie, the mashed potatoes, and the hot rolls.

I only had to make the cornbread dressing and gravy. Yay!

I have to say that everything was more than delicious. We went back to HJ's twice for leftovers, and things just got better and better.

After dinner the girls, kids, and I went to the park and fed the ducks and geese.

Well, I'll close for now.

Another typical day

Today the boys, Jake 8 and Nick 5, are here. Their mom, our youngest, Pen, is still at school getting ready for the holidays. I say they're here, but actually they're playing with the neighborhood boys. They have a walki talki, and I have one. That way I can check what they're doing. Their mom said it's ok for them to play outside without by being with them since there is only one through street in our neighborhood, and we live at the other end of it. I'm doing a little better with them playing now. I used to sit outside with the walki talki AND a pair of binoculars.



Everyone is getting ready for Thanksgiving. This year it will be at our middle daughter, HJ's. There are 15 of us all together: Tam, our oldest, and Mark and their son, Jimmy, and their daughter, Madeleine...HJ and Darrell and their sons, Clayland and Joey, and their daughter, Julia...Pen and Rocky and their afore mentioned sons, Jake and Nick. We all live within 15 minutes of each other, and that is the greatest blessing in the world.

I'll discuss Thanksgiving dinner after the fact if I can still get around.

Thursday afternoon

Hi, it's me again. It's only been a year or so since I've blogged, so you know this is going to be good...just kidding.



But seriously...Today Jimmy (the better half of some 40 odd years) and I went to lunch at Fish Daddy's for fried shrimp. Before I start griping, I have to say that usually I love their food. With that said, today wasn't their finest effort. Besides the shrimp, which were delicious, the best thing about the lunch was the fact that someone waited on me, and I didn't have to clean anything up.



Tomorrow I'm going with my youngest daughter, Pen, and her two boys to watch their daddy, who is a defensive line coach at Stony Point HS here in Round Rock, play a district playoff game. It will be windy and in the 50's, but we'll have our long pants, long sleeve shirts, coats with hoods, gloves, and blankets, so we should just barely freeze. They should win!



Well, look at me. I've finished a blog, and I warned you that it would be good. Was I wrong? I don't think so.