MERRY CHRISTMAS/YULETIDE

I celebrate Yuletide, while my family celebrates Christmas ... the difference?  Not much .... not really.

We also celebrate on December 24th - the way my parents did - it makes things so much easier on the kids, but after 30+ years celebrating it on Christmas Day - we also used to host the family dinner for over 20 years as well ...

Missing that one day is tough to remember - but it should click in fairly soon.

It was so nice to have all the kids together - it's become such a rare thing these days ...

Grandson, Bubba, was so excited he refused to take his afternoon nap - and fought it every way he could ... and he showed how important BOXES are for kids ...

LOL - this spring/summer while I had gone back to the house in the city, I had to watch him for a bit while his mom & aunt went to the store "quick" - yeah, is over an hour quick these days? - and he was not happy with me, he wanted his Mama.

Well - I was packing the house and had a spare box sitting there - so I slipped him inside and made some car sounds and began to push/pull the box around.

OMG - he LOVED it!!!!!!

So while we were opening gifts, he found a box big enough to sit in ... and a new car was born!!!!

LOL ... you gotta love kids!

Later he climbed up in his Opa's lap (grandpa) and fell sound asleep ... finally ... of course, after all his gifts had been opened up.

We did a Buffet style of food - but we didn't over do it like I wanted to .... I have been up since 3AM, and just didn't have the energy .... but we did have:

Smoked Turkey (everyone loves when hubby smokes the birds, in fact it's the ONLY turkey my son-in-law will eat)

Yams - hubby was originally talking about doing a sit-down supper, but the kids liked the browsing idea better.

Chinese Salad - my oldest daughter has taken over making this, they say I just don't make it right ... it's shredded cabbage (we use coleslaw mix), grapes, chopped nuts, green onions, etc. in a simply Rice vinegar based vinegarette .... my mother-in-law made this a long time ago, and we loved it so much it became a Holiday supper staple ... originally, it called for cashews, but when the price got way too high, we found sunflower nuts tasted even better!!

Buns/rolls - gotta have those for making quick sandwiches.

Ripe Olvies - from my family, we stopped doing green ones as well a long time ago ... turned out I was the only one who seemed to eat them.

Pineapple chunks - from my hubby's family.  My family would have mandarin orange slices, but they just haven't tasted sweet enough for the last decade or so ... plus, again I was the only one eating them.

and then there was a plethera of cookies ... both regular and gluten-free.

As usual, the gluten-free member goes first ... that way she is less likely to have an allergic reaction, should anyone accidentally get wheat in/on the food.
Allergies are not anything to play with - and considering the consequences to her, it would not be pleasent.

It was a very nice, peaceful day.

The only thing missing was a new layer of snow .... and this weekend we are supposed to get up ino he 40s ... then we will get rain - RAIN - in December?!?!?!?

That's just not right!