The Eve of Christmas Eve

As we close out the Eve of Christmas Eve I have just a few thoughts.

Our local family didn't win the Great Christmas Light Fight but it was great that so many people were able to see it. Hopefully people will come see it in person and help donate money to the Regional Food Bank.

I went shopping for last minute stuff today and it was crazy out there. I think everyone had the day off and was shopping or working at a store. It took me 25 minutes to drive one mile at one point but there wasn't any other way. I kept my cool because there wasn't any good getting upset could do. Michaels was having 70% off Christmas stuff so I of course had to buy stuff.

All of the gifts are wrapped and under the tree.




Lots of cooking tomorrow to prep for Christmas. Plus volunteering at church and then attending one. I'm looking forward to the candlelight service.

We've got all sorts of ice now and it won't be going away anytime soon. About an inch of accumulation with lots of trees breaking and power lines down.



These are the crepe myrtles that the neighbor has over the back fence. This one lost a chunk in our backyard and I don't know if it will make it through the melting that will happen.




The lady across the street lost her tree and was lucky her car wasn't hit in the driveway when it crashed. Later on the tree to the left broke off. It seemed that the redbud trees were hit hardest. Our stick tree did fine in the backyard. Thank goodness for new trees without many limbs.

Merry Christmas from Port Aransas

We took a vacation for Christmas this year. We decided to go to the Gulf Coast of Texas since it was within driving distance of home and it would be warmer. Ten hours of driving was well worth it.

Christmas brought 75 degrees and super windy weather. But when you consider it was freezing drizzle going into snow and 25 degrees back home, it seems like a great trade off.

We brought most of our presents with us. We packed small!



But it brought lots of goodies.



And created a lot of trash.




We drove along the beach for miles and watched people in bikinis frolicking in the water. It seemed a little cold for me to do that but it was neat driving on the beach. We will go there later in the week when it is less windy.

We stopped at a bird sanctuary and they had a butterfly garden. I missed the monarch migration back home but they are hanging out here. The butterfly weed (yes that's its name) had about 40 of them on it.










And of course we had to stop for the tourist stores because they have huge sharks.







We will end the day with a very non traditional meal of lasagna and garlic bread. The condo we are at didn't have as many cooking dishes as we would like so we had to buy a frozen one. We will cook a ham and turkey next week when both of our mothers come to visit.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day.

Christmas at our House

Well it finally happened. We've gotten old. We all slept in and ate breakfast before we even looked at our stockings. But it was amazing how many presents just the three of us had under the tree. Of course it helps when I wrap each pair of socks I bought Whitney separately and even wrapped a box of Lucky Charms. There are a few things to exchange for sizes but that will be tackled during the week...not tomorrow.

The dog even got a gift but it took her several hours before she would even eat it. I finally had to get down on the floor and pretend to eat it before she would.

As you can see she got a few pairs of socks. She is modeling last year's fun socks along with this year's Christmas pajamas.

We had a very nice dinner. Ham, scalloped corn, mashed potatoes and rolls. Just enough for us and lots of leftovers. We have an apple pie for later tonight.