We had a great couple of days. The weather was really rainy on Christmas Eve, though. I kept thinking that if it was snow, it would have been a blizzard and we wouldn’t have been able to have dinner!
I had a surprising amount of work to do on the Eve and I was intermixing that with getting ready for hosting dinner.
Icing tasty mini cinnamon roll cookies:
John cooking up eggnog 😀
I just love his face in this picture. <3
I got out great grandmother’s china and set the table.
Quick selfie while I was still all cleaned up and unhurried 😀
All loved ones started arriving and we got dinner on the serving table.
We had a chicken cordon bleu casserole, baked macaroni and cheese, vegetable tian, roasted carrots, biscuits, green bean casserole (for my dad).
Yum!
After eating, we had the usual music by John.
It looks like a supernova exploded behind his head – not sure what happened there LOL!
Here is a tiny blip of his playing.
Then it was time for present opening and lot of mess 😀 Since our gas fireplace is not functional right now, we had to substitute:
I recieved a game I have been wanting for a long time (Ticket to Ride) and we got down to business with that while having dessert!
My sister also set up the dessert tray with our cookie swap:
She is talented. Colleen made these adorable cookies, too:
John and I had a quiet Christmas day before heading on down to Saratoga for more games and cookies! I am starting to wear out on the cookies LOL!
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I received some very thoughtful gifts this year.
The paper star lanterns I was eyeing:
My annual cupcake ornament from my mom:
The Aeropress – pretty excited to try this one:
John got me a PS3 game.
Games are my guilty pleasure. 😳
A very enjoyable couple of days, I have to say. The first of many Christmases at Radiance Manor. I hope all of you had a wonderful few days as well!
Aeropress!! Did you hear about that from me, or was it completely separate? I got one when I was going nuts trying to make good coffee. I went in the local kitchen store and was going to be willing to spend quite a bit of money, and they recommended the aeropress. I love it so much. My coffee is better than any I can get at coffee shops. I bet its saved me a lot of money on my afternoon coffees, because I’d rather come home and have my own coffee than anything else.
LOved John’s playing! That music from Charlie Brown is still one of my favorite Christmas CD’s.
Got a kick out of your “fireplace” right next to the real fireplace. And it looks like you made that vegetable dish. What did you think of it?
The coffee maker was completely separate. I didn’t know you had this one! I am excited to try it.
The veggie dish was very good! It was also really good today as leftovers sauteed in a pan! I would make it again for sure.
I love the little video of John playing! He’s quite talented.
He is. I didn’t want to make him nervous by recording a lot of him, which is why it was so short 😀
LOVE LOVE LOVE this Lori – it is the small things in life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COOKIES TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankful for knowing you thru this interweb stuff! 🙂
LOVED John playing!!!!
Where’s Pixie??? 😉
Thanks Jody! Pixie was hiding under the tree 😀
We had a wonderful time! Thanks to you and John for hosting a great family celebration once again!
The piano playing was lovely. We have the train game and love it. It looks like you had a nice holiday. ????
What a nice family Christmas you had! And you got your pretty paper lantern – yay!
You had a wonderful Christmas! And the food looks all so tasty.
Don’t be ashamed of the guilty pleasure, it’s mine too. I play daily a game on the ipad, it’s relaxing.
My talent is so bright, you will need shades to witness it.