And a nice little Christmas it was

[sal_amanda]

There was much confusion this year about where we'd be spending Christmas, but we finally decided we were going to stay here for the actual holiday and then go up to Vermont to see John's family on Thursday after I have my glucose test Wednesday.  This allows me to be more careful about my diet before the test, takes care of what in the world we were going to do with the various dogs involved, and lets John see his cousin who will also be arriving after Christmas.  

So Christmas Eve we attempted to go to 4:00 mass.  I normally know better, but Mike was going to be coming over so I wanted to go earlier rather than later.  Our church is the biggest in the diocese and ever expanding.  They're going to be building a bigger building, but in the meanwhile, they have an outrageous numbers of masses.  Not only did they have a 4:00 in the church, but a 4:15 children's mass in the parish center.  That is the most popular Christmas mass at any Catholic church so we attempted to get there early, but only managed to get there by 3:45.  The church was already packed with people standing.  So we figured we'd hop over to the parish center with no problem since we were a half hour early for that.  Ha.  We did find two chairs in the back, thankfully, but it was already packed there, too.  

There was a squirrelly girl next to us who looked to be about two.  Mom was having a hard time with her.  The other two kids were self-regulated pretty well, thankfully for the mother.  I gave her an understanding smile at one point and she said something about how this will be us next year, as she looked at my belly.  Thanks.

Mike came over for our new tradition of breakfast for dinner.  He stuck around for a while and we watched "Requiem for a Dream" and all was really, really pleasant. 

Christmas morning John woke me up with news of James Brown's death.  Kind of a bummer way to start a holiday.

Did our present opening, with Beezley doing a fine job of shredding the wrapping paper and Doc generally looking for attention amidst all the fuss.  Beeze finally settled down with his peanutbutter filled hoof and finished that off completely before starting in on the bacon filled bone.  We got soft, chewy Greenies that Doc and his 14-year-old teeth can actually chew.  Yay for doggie oral hygiene!

So John started working on our turkey breast and his grandmother's stuffing recipe.  I had to hurry up and hop in the shower, so I could run over to Mom's to visit with the lonely cat and get back in time to make the mashed potatoes.  The cat decided to sprawl out on my belly, making me wonder if the baby could hear her purring.  

Rushed back and we had the most phenomenonal meal.  I am super impressed with John and I think was a little impressed with himself, as well.  The turkey was great, the stuffing was great, my potatoes were great, and we stuffed ourselves soundly.  Did a little digesting, walked the dogs, made some phone calls, ate some apple pie, and watched my new "Little Miss Sunshine" DVD.  

We figure it was nice to have this very quiet Christmas all to ourselves as it will not happen again after this year.  

Now the packing and getting ready for travelling begins, including already taking down the tree as we're quite sure there will be more needles on the floor than on the tree if we leave it until we get back.