Oh What Fun…

On Christmas Eve day we woke up to hear that Snoqualmie Pass, the main route from Western Washington to Eastern Washington was closed due to avalanche danger and trees over the roadway. That was the route that our son Dan and daughter in law Jamie were planning to drive to get to our house for our Christmas celebrations. Soon the DOT was announcing that they did not plan to open up the pass at all this day. Yikes! Our son Josh came to the rescue and was able to book flights for Dan and Jamie to fly from Spokane to Seattle and arrive at 4:30 on Christmas Eve Day. He used miles and we were all so grateful that we would still be all together and that Dan and Jamie didn’t have to miss out on our time together.

 

Katie got an ugly Christmas sweater to wear to work on Christmas Eve. When she got home from work early she and I headed to the airport to pick up the precious cargo.

We had an exciting text on Christmas Eve morning letting us know that our nephew and his wife had their first little baby, a sweet little girl. My brother and sister-in-law became grandparents for the first time with her arrival.

After we had some of Dear’s famous soup for a quick meal we all headed to a 6:30 Christmas Eve service at church. It was a beautiful service with lots of carols and candlelight and a great gospel message. We came home and enjoyed each others company and then off to bed to wait for Santa to come fill our stockings.

 

As you can see Santa was very generous!

 

So much silly fun around the breakfast table and then we opened presents. We decided to take a walk so that we could make room for dinner!

 

We tried out Laura’s new selfie stick! Some of us wore our Christmas Cracker Crowns!

 

We started on Christmas dinner preparations when we got back from our walk.

 

 

Our centerpiece…O come let us adore Him!

 

Prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, creamed corn, and roasted vegetables.

 

Delicious pies made by our new daughter in law, Jamie! She even carried them through security and on the plane.

 

Apple pie with apples from their trees and pecan pie!

My side of the family enjoyed a Christmas Eve celebration at my sister Kathy’s house in Southern California and here are a few photos I stole to share.

 

My dear old Pop praying before their meal.

 

My sisters and one of my brothers. My brother Steve was preoccupied with his very new granddaughter across town!

 

My pop with two of his great grands!

 

Time for Vareniki!

Today is Boxing day and the girls are headed for tea at the Queen Mary Tea room for an early birthday celebration for our Katie.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Boxing Day Favorites

Boy was I wiped out after a wonderful full day of celebrating with our kids yesterday. My kids are all adults so I can only imagine how much more wiped out I’d be if there were little ones to chase about the house and entertain…

Xmas Eve & morning 012The favorite new tradition were our Christmas Crackers/Poppers. We got such a kick out of the cheesy little gifts and jokes that popped out and we all wore our tissue crowns through breakfast. Josh and Katie pretty much wore their crowns all day long…fun times.

Santa really loaded up our stockings this year…

Xmas Eve & morning 002

It would be great if in the U.S.A. Boxing day was a holiday, too, like Great Britain and Canada or St. Stephens Day in Ireland. Dear has been at work for many hours already. Dan will be hitting the road to cross the Cascade Mountain range later this morning. He should make it home in 5 or so hours.

I read up about Boxing Day online and it’s interesting to read some of the history. Here’s a little view of all our Christmas Boxes. This year was a banner year for boxes.

Xmas Eve & morning 003When Katie and I were in Vancouver B.C. I bought one thing at the Christmas Market, this pretty little bird.

Christmas Eve 004Another new ornament that is perfect on my tree is this next one from Lovella. Joy really is fulfilled in Christmas.

Christmas Eve 006

This year my Wee Forest Folk Nativity is now complete. The last piece needed was the Wise Man in a Turban. He was under the tree this year…

2013-12-26 Christmas Day

Christmas Day 012

I know lots of you are celebrating with your loved ones today. When your family expands you need to be flexible and go with the flow. Are you a Boxing day shopper? Do you rush out the day after to add to your Christmas stash from the clearance sales?  For the rest of you I hope you have time to reflect and relax on this Boxing Day 2013.