Our Christmas 2017

I sincerely hope all of you had a very wonderful and Merry Christmas.  I was feeling enormously blessed on Christmas day and I still am.  We officially began our Christmas celebration on Friday after I got home from work, although, to be honest, it has truly been a month of celebration beginning right after Thanksgiving weekend.  Time spent with friends and family is extra special to me and there was a lot of that this holiday season.

Homemade Clam Chowder

On Christmas Eve we prepared our traditional Clam Chowder supper.  I made a large pot of chowder in my great grandmothers old pot along with homemade cheesy garlic drop biscuits.  The girls always count on me making this meal every year and eagerly look forward to it.  I do too!

At 7:30 Christmas morning, it was so quiet out and very pretty

Christmas morning we awoke to a fresh layer of snow that had begun to fall as we were finishing supper the night before.  It was so pretty.  I put on some of our favorite Christmas music on the Victrola and then, just as the girls were getting up it began, to snow again.  You couldn't ask for a better back drop for opening presents.

And now I finally get to show you the gifts I was working on for my girls.

Santa seriously stuffed their stockings.

We watched the movie that afternoon

And he brought us an Echo Dot and one of our favorite movies on DVD.

I finished making the underwear!

And I also made them teenager approved pajama sets.

Flannel bottoms with knit T-shirts and camisoles in coordinating colors.  The fun flannel prints were a hit!

My youngest loves to do manicures and pedicures so she got plenty of nail polish, a set of embellishing tools and a portable nail dryer.  The kitties and the chickens got her a cover for her cell phone.

Lenny likes the paper

My oldest wanted a new pair of black ankle boots.  The kitties and the chickens got her a bag of Lindor truffles.

Oooooooh yes!

I also got each of the girls a big package of colorful socks.  We got the kitties each a new catnip mouse.  Those were a definitely a hit and we made the chickens a suet cake.

Love these!

The girls got me some yummy smelling wax for my Scentsy warmer, a nice set of gel pens for crafting, a cute little stuffed puppy dog, a big box of tea and two tubes of Chapstick.  Perfect!

For breakfast I put a homemade coffeecake in the oven to bake while we opened gifts.  Then I cooked up some breakfast sausage and scrambled some eggs to go with it.

This is what a year's worth of planning and preparation gets reduced too

One of my favorite tasks is the Christmas cleanup.  Call me crazy, that's okay.  This year the girls were totally into it too as we went through everything and collected any reusable tissues, bows, gift bags and boxes.  

My goal is always to have minimal trash and once again this year we were successful and filled up one small grocery bag to go to the curb.  Yay!  And we have quite a few things to reuse next year!

That afternoon the girls headed out to shovel snow and I made an eggnog cheesecake for our dessert.  Boy oh boy was it good.  None of us are big eggnog fans here, but this cheesecake was surprisingly good and may make us converts.

Yorkshire puddings pulled straight from the oven

We enjoyed an early supper with all three of us in the kitchen getting it done.  My youngest set a beautiful table and served up the beverages and put out the condiments.  My oldest sautéed the green beans and I made Yorkshire puddings, New York Strip steaks with Au Jus and baked some potatoes.  It was heavenly and we were feeling pretty darn blessed when we sat down at that table.  A couple hours later we served dessert.

Oh good gracious!

The day went by way to fast, as it always seems to, and I couldn't have asked for a nicer Christmas.  I hope your day was extra special as well.