Yo-Ho-Ho-Ho

We started out Christmas with the Christmas eve dinner for butch's immediate family. This is what our kitchen looks like when the blessing is done and 25 loving family members all take turns elbowing each other away from the food!

We all found a spot to stand or sit or plopped down for a good meal. Another appearance by my buddy Alex, who found a good spot to himself.

Afterward, there was much wrapping paper shredding, followed all the ooooh's and aaaaah's, followed by the annual hunt for batteries. Good time was had by all and we even had a surprise appearance by Bucky and Jack! (I must admit, it must have been a little scary for them, as the noise level begins the evening really loud, and by the time they got there half had already left, but the noise was only increasing)

Christmas day we head down to Lydia's for the day. More paper shredding followed by more ohhh's and aaaah's, followed by a whole lot of "LILY-NO"'s. They've released a movie called Marley and me.....that dog can have nothing on the other blonde lab...Lily!

Below the girls are all hard at work on dinner and look who's in the middle looking for anyone to accidentally drop something......that's right-Lily.

Okay, I know she's going to kill me when she finally reads this, but that's what you get when I say smile and you make a face like that.

ho-freakin-ho

You know, it's always a bitch getting ready for Christmas. If it was at our house today, it was either cleaned or wrapped. The wrapping will have to be finished tomorrow, cause stick a fork in my butt, I'm done. I also need to bake an apple pie tomorrow night, to take to my moms on Thursday. I'm going to try soaking the raisins overnight in the rum and add them to the pie, that way, maybe the bottom crust won't be quite so drunk. Can't do it Tuesday, cause that's when we're baking the bird and something else that I'm just to fried to remember what it was. Everyone is coming here for Christmas eve and we'll have a house full of family and friends. It will be noisy and laughing and fun, and hopefully, everyone will go home happy with full bellys.

Christmas Lunch

Last Sunday was butch's annual family Christmas gathering. There was about 65 people in attendance, with lots of food stopping by for a short visit. butch was one of the organizers this year, which meant we had to get gobs of presents for the "now you have it, now you don't" which I always called a Pollyanna-same game, different titles, same outcome. Do you know how hard it is to buy a gazillion gifts under $2? Pretty hard is the answer. Thank goodness for 5 below, and the dollar store.

Here are the real stars of the show. Butch has/had 10 uncles, 9 of them served in the military in some form or the other. The gentleman in red in the middle is sporting something that he doesn't show very often. It's the Purple Heart he was awarded at Normandy. Lucky for the family, it's the only one all those brothers acquired.