We made Christmas countdown chains in Sunday school.
Brynn had wanted to do a secret Santa exchange this year, so we each spent $5.00 on the person whose name we had drawn. Clara needed a little assistance...with purchasing her gift and with remembering to keep the secret. :-)
Dana had Brynn's name; she was excited to open a huge can of Arnold Palmer and BBQ potato chips. She promptly wrote on the bag of chips to stake claim that they were hers.
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On Monday morning we headed to Fessenden where grandma Darlene and auntie Shelly were busy making bumbushkies for Christmas eve dinner at Tessa's. We joined in as soon as we arrived. It was so much fun and very special to me to be able to make them together. We sampled a busted one at lunch it was really good.
Grandma also had made up a batch of Granny Bert's (Grandma Darlene's mom) egg nog for Christmas eve. I sampled some of that as well and it was also pretty tasty. Shelly kindly wrote down the recipe for Tessa and me. And yes it is strong. ;-) (Maybe I shouldn't be posting our secret family recipe on the blog!)
Clara snuggled up to uncle Lester (whom she fondly and inadvertently calls "Lesterd") for some TV while Lester snoozed.
After we finished up at Grandma's, we made our way to Tessa's house. Soon it was time to get ready for Festivus! If you are a 'Seinfeld' fan, you might be familiar with the phrase, "Festivus for the rest of us!" It's a made-up holiday from the sitcom featuring an unadorned pole, airing of grievances and feats of strength. Chad's aunt and uncle were hosting the gathering at their house in Hurdsfield, so we adults left the two eldest cousins in charge of the underlings and off we went.
We started out with a delicious meal of spaghetti and meatloaf before moving on to the airing of the grievances. Not surprisingly, after that I was defeated several times in arm wrestling. Dana fared pretty well, though.
We attended Christmas eve service in Chaseley at the United Methodist Church. They had a really nice service and program which included the Weckerly children. (Well done, guys!).
They also asked for names of those who had passed away during 2019 so they could place a memory bulb on the tree. I loved this idea. Several had called out names and I thought of Grandma Froemming, of course. Before I could call out her name, I saw Clara whispering to Dana that we should say Grandma's name. It was so sweet as I didn't think she had realized what was going on, much less to recognize that we should include Grandma. I would love to do this for our own tree to include my grandparents who have passed over the years now as well.
Reagan got right to work with her new cotton candy maker.
Pretty cool!
We had never done Christmas morning with my parents before, so this year we decided to spend Christmas eve at their house in Carrington and open gifts from Santa with them Christmas morning.
It was pretty late by the time we got there and Clara was done for, but we still had to take time to set out the cookies for Santa.
Seymour trying to behave...
..but failing. :-) I think he was on Santa's naughty list this year.
He's so lovable though.
Reading with Grandpa while we wait for Brynn to wake up and open gifts.
Yay! Oreo houses! We each received one from Santa. Our gingerbread house contest just went next-level.
Clara got the reindeer she had asked Santa for when she saw him in person.
Trying out Clara's new make-up set.
Redneck sledding with cardboard. :-)
Christmas Twister!
Tessa and fam came over for Christmas ham dinner and to open gifts from the grandparents to the grandkids.
Playing Pictionary Air.
More arm wrestling. Ben challenged me. He put up a really good fight!
We got back home Christmas day around 5:30. Dana and Brynn got going on Legos later that evening.
Thank you for all the gifts and to the many wonderful hosts! We will be working on checking off the things we had on our Christmas vacation bucket list as well as celebrating Christmas with Dana's side this weekend. Merry Christmas!
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