Here at the Fabgrandma household, the holidays were a mix of fun, food, and family. For Thanksgiving, I wanted to have the whole family over together, but work schedules and sick babies interfered with that. So, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, my step-daughter, Becky, and her husband, Rafe, came to eat with us. I made a pork loin roast in my new roasting pan from Tramintina. The roast was soooo good. I had never prepared a pork roast like that before, so I was worried that it would not be good, but I have to say that was the best roast ever. I don’t have any pictures of it because it was before my computer was attacked by that virus, and I lost those, but I will say it was quite beautiful, too. I made home made cranberry sauce, squash casserole, and butter peas to go with it.
Then, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, my son Seth and his family came over. This time, we had Honey Baked Ham for sandwiches, potato salad, and other things to go along with the sammies. The kids played in the yard all day. Before they came, I bought a ball about the size of a kick ball for them to play with, since I didn’t have anything here to entertain them. That ball was a good purchase, because the 19 year old down to the 5 year old all played together with it. While they were here, my daughter-in-law, Sarah J and my granddaughter Sarah B put my Christmas Tree up for me. They did a great job!
(No, I didn’t wrap all that before the tree was up! This was taken on the day we celebrated Christmas at my house, the Sunday after Christmas.)
If you can keep up with this, the next weekend after that, my daughter, Emily and her family came to have dinner with us, still celebrating Thanksgiving on December 3! For this dinner, we went totally stress free. Emily stopped at KFC and brought tons of fried chicken, and all the sides. It was good, and no one had to cook, no one had to do a ton of dishes. We had lots of time to just talk and visit. I loved it! Parker is obsessed with Peppa Pig, so we found some YouTube videos and played them on the TV for him.
Spencer with the Jack In the Box:
On Christmas Eve, I went over to my son’s house, and made Christmas cookies with Amelia. We also made some hors dourves for a party. She may only be five, but she can make Pigs in Blankets and Sausage Balls like a champ!
She really enjoyed making the Pigs in Blankets. She learned really quickly how to wrap those biscuits around the sausage links.
Pink Champagne and Apple Juice served in plastic wine glasses made it more like a party! Cheers to the holidays!
Owen doesn’t like cooking so much, but he did help decorate the cookies. He was good at that.
Whew! Cooking all that party food is so much work! But this little cook had fun, and evidently, some chocolate frosted cookies!
We had our Christmas party at my house on the Sunday after Christmas. All of the kids and grandkids came, and our nephew Daniel and his family. I cooked for two days for this party.
Roasted Chickens, squash casserole, cornbread dressing, baby lima beans, potato salad, and home made cranberry sauce, and giblet gravy. Daniel’s wife, Alicia, brought green beans. Sarah J brought two cakes. All of the food was sooo good!
Tramintina
The potato salad in the fridge, made the day before.
After we ate, the children were allowed to open their gifts. There was a big swoosh of wrapping paper being torn, and ooohs and aaahs as they discovered their gifts. I think they all liked what they received, but the gift of the day was the Play Rug from Olive Kids for Owen. As soon as he opened it, he had his Dad take off the packaging, and threw it down on the floor and laid down on it. He was positively in heaven! I think I did something right.
We cleaned up all the wrapping paper when the kids gifts were all opened, then they all went outside to play. It had rained here for what seemed like two full weeks, and they were ready to burn off some energy. With them all outside, the adults played the Silly Santa game,where they each drew a number, and then either opened a gift, or stole one from someone else. It was so much fun, and we all had a really good time.
I didn’t get to take any pictures of the kids opening their gifts, they started before I was ready with the camera. But I did get some pictures of the adults in the family:
Our Nephew Daniel, and his daughter, Katherin.
My daughter-in-law, Sarah was closely examining a gift she opened, while Sarah B and Parker looked on.
I think Emily, my daughter, was telling me not to take her picture. Oops!
Even though the ground was still wet from days of rain, the kids stayed out there playing all afternoon. They needed the fresh air, and to run off some energy, and just be outdoors.
And Parker found a puddle. He was happy as a pig in a poke!
When everyone left to go home, Fabgrandpa and I sat down in our recliners, and promptly fell asleep. I think that was around 6:30. I woke up about 2:00 a.m. Yes, it was an exhausting round of holidays, but I enjoyed every minute of it. This grandma was one happy camper!
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