Christmas 2009

Last Wednesday night I made sugar cookies and gingerbread men for the punch and cookie time after our church Christmas Eve service.

Thursday morning I got up and started decorating the sugar cookies. AD told me that from the weather forecast he'd heard on the local news he thought there was a chance the Christmas Eve service would be cancelled.

I kept decorating cookies. Our weather radio went off a couple of times warning of the impending sleet and snow that would soon be upon us. But I kept right on decorating.

I finished decorating the sugar cookies and went to get the other bag of powdered sugar out of the pantry to make the royal icing for the gingerbread house. I KNOW I bought 2 bags of powdered sugar but where that 2nd bag went to I'll never know.

Inspiration hit. I had some white chocolate candy coating stuff that I thought would work just fine to glue that house together. And it did! The house went together lickety split. But when I went to pipe it onto the gingerbread men it was kind of runny so I had to let it harden up just a bit. Then I had to work fast before it hardened all the way. I should have used a squirt bottle but that's just a lesson learned. Still, everything came out like I wanted it to.

While I was putting the house together I started hearing sleet hit the front windows. By the time I got to the gingerbread men the sleet was hitting the windows HARD! Son called from Oklahoma City and asked how much snow we had. No snow - just some sleet. He said they were in blizzard conditions and couldn't see across the street.

Just about the time the cookies were all finished AD said he just received an email that the church service had been cancelled. Don't even ask me how he was able to access the internet to get the email. Normally when weather is bad our satellite service goes kaput.

Eventually the snow started.

That hazy stuff is the snow blowing. At times it almost looked like a snow tornado.

I had a feeling we weren't going to make it to AD's mother's on Christmas Day for dinner so as a back up plan I took some chicken out of the freezer and made a batch of noodles to dry overnight. I always make rolls for Christmas and they were already in the refrigerator waiting to be baked on Christmas Day.

If we couldn't make it to Tulsa for dinner we'd have the most important part of the dinner at our house anyway - chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes and rolls. The cookies from the cancelled church service would be the dessert.

This was the snow drift on our back patio Christmas morning. It was kind of cool though (no pun intended), the way the snow drifted and left a little path for the dogs to go out and take care of their business. Like they wanted to go out in that stuff!

Daughter and her family made it over for Christmas breakfast but not without problems. They only live 1 1/2 miles from us but it was treacherous. They got off in a ditch and broke an axle on their truck.

But that didn't stop us from celebrating Christmas. We had breakfast and opened presents.

With guidance from Melinda (Mickey and Me) I bought AD a great Christmas gift - a wildlife camera! He was so surprised and so pleased. It's always hard from me to get something for AD without him figuring out what it is before he opens it. Thanks, Melinda! I couldn't have done it without you.

And of course the annual pickle hunt happened. This year bragging rights go to G2. His prize was a whole box of Laffy Taffy (which G1 got into when G2 wasn't looking. But you didn't hear that from me.)

Later in the day we enjoyed our chicken and noodle dinner.

The day after Christmas AD was beginning to get a case of cabin fever. He said he thought we'd be able to drive into town. I wasn't so sure. So I took my time getting ready and about 2:00 we got in the truck. It has 4-wheel drive and it's a good thing. Our country roads left a lot to be desired. To get to the highway we have to go up this hill.

And down this one, then make a left turn.

Go straight about a mile and over a little bridge (that doesn't look all the safe on a normal day.) Finally we get to the highway. It really is a highway, but a 2-lane one. For the most part it was ok, but there were a few patches that could cause problems if we weren't careful.

We made it to town and did a little after Christmas shopping. Picked up a couple of things I'd had my eye on but didn't want to pay full price for. On the way home 3 deer crossed the road in front of us and I was able to snap this photo across the cab of the truck before they were out of sight.

On Sunday we had our Christmas with AD's family. That's AD in the back, his brother on the right, his mom in the chair and his 2 sisters.

I talked Daughter into letting me take a picture of her too. If she reads my blog today she'll probably say, "MOM!!!!!!" and it will be a long time before I can talk her into another picture.

But maybe if I tell you that Daughter gave me the one gift I requested this year - one of those goofy hats with the ear flaps - and show you this picture of me in it

it will make everything all better.

We're not finished with Christmas yet though. We'll be getting together with Son and his family in a couple of weeks to celebrate with our youngest grandkids.

I hope your Christmas was one filled with family and fun.

PS - I may look like a dork in my hat - but I'm a warm dork and the warm part is what counts. At least to me.