Remembering Christmas 2011

I have taken this day to do nothing else than rest.  I am perfectly molded into the cushion of the couch, while King Ralph is perfectly molded into the leather recliner--we have no plans to be motivated.  Laziness has its place today and it feels oh-so-good!

The last several days have been great.  King Ralph's nephew arrived at our house on the 23rd from New Jersey.  He is an Air Force officer (pilot) stationed at McGuire AFB --it has been ten years since he has celebrated the holidays with the family.  The girls miss their cousins terribly.  It warmed my heart to see the three girls making Charley laugh and the four of them all laughing together.  On Christmas Eve we celebrated the birth of Christ at church...our wise men have been moving around the house all month and finally made there way to the manger scene.

 Then we came home were King Ralph's sister and her family joined us for a feast of appetizers, spiked nog and a night of games.  King Ralph in usual Scattergories fashion tried to pass off an "s" word (Sucrets) as a "c" word.  Fail!  We laughed and loved, escalating our Christmas spirit.  Then we all headed to bed to slumber waiting for Santa Claus to do his magic.  And he did.  Under the tree he placed three gifts for each of the girls. At our house we practice: Jesus got three gifts upon his birth so that is what the girls get--three gifts.  Good enough for Jesus. Good enough for the girls. Stockings were stuffed to the brim as well.  Then the girls tip-toed to the living room and placed gifts for each other, King Ralph and I under the tree.  

We spent Christmas Day celebrating at King Ralph's cousin's house. Where after ten years of Christmas cousin pictures with Charley's name written on a piece of paper--the real thing was added. First cousins together like they should be.

      where they got silly

 and sillier

Minus one great grand-kid we snapped pictures to celebrate their togetherness

Then for all the 21 and over crowd we toasted the late and great Gee-Gee with root beer float shots.  Okay so her idea of a root beer float (which she served up to the great-grand kids every time they visited her house) was vanilla ice cream and Vess root beer, while ours was vanilla vodka and root beer...we raised our glasses, just like we did at her memorial dinner, "to Gee-Gee" and slung the shot back.

What is Christmas without playing games?  Cards it was!

Penny a chip.

 My name is D and I am a chip hog.

At ten o'clock King Ralph and the girls drug my Maple Butter Kiss

Ingredients

• Ice
• 1 1/2 oz. vodka
• 1/2 oz. DeKuyper Buttershots liqueur or butterscotch schnapps
• 1/4 oz. real maple syrup
• 1 oz. half-and-half
• Fresh-ground nutmeg

Directions

Pour liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a martini glass and top with fresh-ground nutmeg.

and Chocolate Vanilla martini tail to the car....

No doubt we had a very merry day! I hope you did too.