Tuesday 18 December 2012

Is it Christmas yet?

Wow, this grandma doesn't know where the time has gone the last few weeks, but it's hard to believe that a week from today, Christmas Day will be coming to an end!  On a brighter note at least we didn't miss it LOL!

I won't bore you with the details, but between this darn foot of mine (yes, it's still causing me grief...but I'm going for an MRI on Dec 23, 11pm), a bout of bronchitis, a couple days with the flu and numerous trips to Toronto, Niagara Falls etc, the big day has slowly been creeping up to me!

Thankfully all the gifts have been bought and wrapped, and I'm not worrying about doing any baking this year. We don't need it and don't want it hanging around the house.  We have managed to keep up with some traditions however, and that's much more important :)

A couple weeks ago, as I was starting to recover from the bronchitis, grandpa and I took the kids after school for a few hours on a Friday and we delved into a new craft. Dough ornaments!  Yup, we took the leap and with everyone's hands in the mix we came up with a few different colors....3 shades of red/pink green and Cade's favorite, orange....hehehe!
 
Getting the dough ready :)
 
Notice little brother is nowhere to be seen LOL!
He said he was not going to get his hands sticky...hehehe!
   
What fun we had...kneading, rolling, cutting with cookie cutters, coming up with different ideas as to how to decorate each ornament :)  I must admit the recipe made a really great playdough...much better than the bought kind...and I think grandma is going to make a batch the next time the kids feel like playing with dough :)
 
Mixing in their colors!
  
Their little creative minds took hold and before long we had two cookie sheets covered with beautiful Christmas ornaments.  They were a wee bit 'thicker' than they should have been by the time they added all the extra dough balls, ropes etc, and after baking for 4 hours in a low oven, it took an extra week to dry completely LOL!  We still have to add some Mod Podge and sparkles to them, but that's what we have planned for this coming Friday when we have them again :)
 
Baking...baking....baking.....
  
The following day it was Gingerbread House and Gingerbread Train day!  They did such a great job that grandpa told them he was going to get each of them a house to decorate by themselves next Christmas!  They sure were excited about that little tidbit....hehehe!

  Grandpa did a wonderful job with the icing. I think
he's been watching grandma doing all those cakes over the decades LOL!
 
Unfortunately we couldn't keep them overnight either night because I was still trying to recover from all that coughing I had been doing, and by the time grandpa left to bring them home, I was ready to crawl into bed LOL!

This past weekend, on our way home from a conference in the Falls, we stopped at our middle son's home to celebrate an early Christmas with he, his wonderful wife and our two step grandkids. The kids are spending this Christmas with their dad, so they won't be here to celebrate with us.

Friday night we took them out to a favorite Japanese restaurant....can we say stuffed?? LOL!  Oh my, that food is good....too good. Thankfully we don't have one of those restaurants near us....hehehe!

Over dinner we debated back and forth as to just when we should open gifts.  Worse than a little kid, I was all for opening them as soon as we got back from supper. The other adults all voted for the following night...both kids wanted that night just like me. Sooooo we got our way LOL!
 
   Brittney received her digital camera from us....she's in a student exchange program and will be heading to Germany in the spring, so needed a better camera for all that travelling.  We bought Austin a new lense for his new hobby, photography. He has a really good camera but had been wanting this new lense.  Along with a bunch of other goodies, they made out pretty good LOL! It sure will be a lot quieter this Christmas morning without them here though.

Grandpa and I received a GPS!  Holy smokes. Now grandpa has two women in the car telling him where to go and how to go there LOL!

Yesterday the girls and Cade came over for a visit with mom and dad.  I had been baking bacon to get it ready for the freezer for Christmas breakfast, but they all got into it and Grandpa had to go to the store to buy a few more pounds LOL! I must admit, it really was yummy :)

So, as we count down the final days leading up to the 25th, my list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter as I try to precook foods, or at least get them partially ready.  But, as with every year, everything gets done, everyone has a great time and everyone leaves stuffed on Christmas Eve. What more can we ask for :)

So probably until next week, have a wonderful Christmas everyone and please realize just how blessed you are :)

Grandma loves you
xoxoxoxo