We had a wonderful Christmasy couple of days! Christmas Eve and Christmas are real family days and we get together both days. John and I hosted the Christmas Eve dinner, which is tradition anymore it seems. Even though I worked most of the day on the eve, preparing dinner went really easily, which was both luck and choosing easy to prepare dishes. Turns out everything needed to be at the same temperature in the oven – how is that for lucky?
Table:
Great grandma’s dishes, like every year.
Here is a gorgeous centerpiece made by a friend of my sister and BIL. They live closer to us, so dropped off the centerpiece here and we could enjoy it for our dinner and then my sister and her family would have it after that.
Family arriving!
Snagged!
.
Food on the side table for serving. It just makes it so much easier to do it this way.
Yum:
After dinner was present opening by the fire. 
New house will have a real fireplace!
We played games after dinner, as per usual.
Much laughter ensued. Then it was dessert and cake time.
The Cake (aka Grampa’s cake).
Love this cake so much!
Christmas morning was nice and quiet. John and I didn’t exchange too many gifts because we are moving next month and figured that would be less to move 😀
John did put some nail polish in my stocking. I can’t believe he bought nail polish LOL!
I had to try it out Christmas morning.
Then there were more games and music at my sister’s house. They have a new Clumber Spaniel puppy – named Gryphon (aka Griffie).
He’s cute, but quite energetic. Very hard to get him to hold still for a picture.
More games!
And some music making:
Another fun family gathering this year! The new table survived as well. Inaugurated with crumbs and spills, but it came out unscathed!
So glad you had a nice Christmas Lori! You have John trained so well he’s buying
you nail polish now huh? :)lol. So funny my fireplace looks just like that! 🙂 Does
yours play relaxing music like mine? One night this holiday season hubby fell asleep on the couch
and i had all the Christmas lights on and i put in the fireplace dvd and pulled out a good book. It
was wonderful. Like you i hope to have a ‘real’ fireplace one day except mine has to be gas as
a real wood fire would probably set off hubby’s asthma. Here’s to looking forward to the new year!
Only one dreaded chore left……….put all the Christmas stuff away……….uuugh….. Hugs! deb
We won’t take down the tree until New Year’s Day. Then we have to start thinking about packing up the rest of the house, too. Ugh!
We didn’t exchange any gifts either – and we are fine with that! I was so busy working I never even decorated, which made me a bit sad before Christmas, but now I don’t have to put anything away!
Your table is gorgeous – and when we have a big group over, we do it buffet style too – so much easier.
Merry Christmas!
Christmas did come up quick! I never put out my Charming Tail christmas village because I didn’t want to have to unpack it and pack it back up again.
That cake!!!! And the ham looks mighty tasty too. I bought a ham to make for “leftovers.” I’m glad because we didn’t even have ham for Christmas dinner! Your family seems like they really enjoy one another’s company. How nice. and that puppy! He looks huge–is it just the camera angle?
The puppy is all head and feet – they are huge! His body is small and it makes him all clumsy and funny like puppies are 😀
I like buffets for groups, too! Plus then you have to actually get up if you want 2nds!!
Looks like y’all had 2 fun days! I love playing games – we spent time doing the same thing!!!
Games are so much fun. We can’t get everyone to join and they just don’t know what they are missing out on!
We had a wonderful couple of days! Thanks for hosting Christmas Eve dinner again this year. I love the time we get to spend together. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2014!
Here, here! (or hear, hear – whichever it is)
You sure had a wonderful Christmas, loved looking at the pictures. Thanks for sharing.
It was very nice! 😀
What a lovely time all around Lori – beautiful pics & love! The table looked amazing!!!!!
Thanks, Jody. We were happy with the table and I didn’t freak out too bad when a glass of water got spilled, either. 😀
Everyone looks like they had a great time, which is all we really want, right? Although, that blue nail polish is pretty spectacular…John did good! 🙂
I think I will keep John around for another year or two 😉
Your table looks great. Good job!
I had that same exact fire at my house on Christmas! 🙂
I’m so happy you had a happy Christmas!
I’m with you on serving buffet style it’s so much easier. Looks like a good time with family and that’s the best gift of all.