Amber and Jud were not at Christmas morning, so we decided to do the big dinner instead of big lunch. For lunch, we did sandwiches. As I said, Michael hadn't eaten in almost a full day, so I made a huge roast beef sandwich for him and chips and queso, then I took the kids to eat. Gabriel--and who knew?--LOVES eating cherry tomatoes. I was thinking that might be a good addition to his lunches or whatever because they are pretty cheap and good for him.
By the afternoon, we were pooped, so Gabriel and I went upstairs and took a nap. Emerald was too wired to sleep, so I held off for her. It was nice getting to snuggle Gabriel and get some rest--the holidays always take a lot out of me.
Post-nap, we put on Toy Story 3 for the kids to watch--they really enjoyed that, and it gave us a bit of time to rest and relax and breathe.
This past June, my Great Grandmother--Barbara, my Papa's mother--passed away. We were all really close to her, she was a wonderful woman. Well, this was the first time that I saw my family since July (sad--I want to see them more), so this was the first chance that we had to go through the things that Grandma left us. That's why the candy dish that morning had made me cry--it was marked "From Mom and Grandma". I was confused--I never call Granny "Grandma"...I call her Granny, so I looked at Mom and she told me it was from Grandma Hill. When I opened it, it was a pretty little clear crystal candy dish with a little butterfly on top....Grandma loved butterflies and had them all over her house. I got a little emotional seeing it....Mom picked it out for me because it is going to be hard for the kids to smash, lol.
My Grandmother collected dolls for as long as I knew her, since Papa was little as far as I can gather, so she left a lot of dolls for all of us. Granny got all the ones intended for this side of the family, and so she laid them all out on the table, as well as some vases and ceramic lady heads, and (going in age order), we picked two each. At least 6 of us were crying. Because there were so many, I ended up getting three the first time for me (two were a set), then one for each of my kids, then one extra one, plus a dress that Grandma had sewn herself. I am going to print that pretty copy of her from Amber's wedding and put it and the dress in a shadow box, I think.
I will take good care of them and eventually give them, plus the miniature ceramic lady heads and book collection when she was still alive.
As expected, that got everyone pretty emotional, so we moved on from that to cooking dinner. Michael took Emerald upstairs and I helped downstairs with the food.
Now, since almost everyone has diabetes or blood pressure problems, you would think that our diets would suffer, but everything was still quite fabulous. We had fried wild turkey for an appetizer, then ham and roast, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes that were made with fresh grated nutmeg (incredible), sweet potato casserole, rolls, salad, homemade creamed spinach with mushrooms and cheese then baked (also really good), gravy....it was sooooo good. My Uncle Ted is a fabulous cook, and he was telling me about how if an adult consumes an entire nutmeg, it has hallucinogenic effects. Which...is kinda cool, really. There were also lemon bars, and fresh brownies, and a birthday cake for Jesus (Emerald asked for it, lol), and pumpkin and pecan and apple pies.
Since we had church the next day, we all took baths in that well water that makes you feel like you aren't getting all the soap off your body (darned hard Lubbock water!) and turned in early =)
~Andie~
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