Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
Remember that absentee son-in-law I mentioned?
He’s back.
It’s only a brief visit, then away he’ll go again. But at least he’s here now.
I think they were both a teeny bit irritated that I made them stop at a very specific spot on the way to the car.
But I bet I’ll be forgiven now that they’ve seen the result. 🙂
Mothers do know best sometimes.
To see all the pics, you’ll have to visit my Flickr page.
We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house because Amy and her kids couldn’t be here on Christmas Day. Eric’s girlfriend, Kelsey, was here, too, which was nice.
Then on Christmas day, Hubby’s Mom and my parents joined Hubby, Shannon, Eric, and me for dinner. Which was also nice.
I took quite a few pics on Christmas Eve. But I didn’t even think about picking my camera up on Christmas day.
Can you believe that?
I can’t. I missed getting a picture of Hubby’s Mom in her pretty Christmas outfit. I didn’t get a picture of my parents either. And I REALLY wanted to have someone take a picture of Hubby and I together in front of our Christmas tree. Really. But I even forgot about that.
Jeez.
It was a lovely day anyway.
At least I have a few shots to share from Christmas Eve.
All of the gifts were wrapped and placed around the tree.
Last weekend, when Joey was here, he saw the angel that sits atop our tree. He either said our tree was stupid or funny because we had a doll on top of the tree instead of a star. I like our angel okay. But what I really miss is this awful cardboard star that Shannon, Amy, Eric and I made during one of our very first Christmases together. I wish I knew where that thing went.
I thought for sure someone would comment about the face on this Santa Claus. I’m not sure which of my girlfriends gave this one to me, but I think it was Carol. He’s got a very unique mug, wouldn’t you say?
I took a few pics of the ornaments on our tree.
I really like snowmen. And birds. From a decor perspective AND a real-life perspective.
My Aunt Kathy gave me this bird ornament several years back. She knows I like birds, but she didn’t know what this particular bird was called (Dark-eyed Junco) or that it is one of my favorite birds. They’re winter birds in this area. They’re pretty social and think nothing of hanging out on our back steps for the dogs to watch and/or salivate over.
I also love the way our house looks during the holidays.
I especially love the house when it’s full of our kids. And our grand kids.
The grand kids always enjoy playing with the gazillion Legos I have here. Some were mine when I was a kid and some were Uncle Eric’s. They asked Uncle Eric to build Legos with them. Shannon and I were busy in the kitchen. I did pop in long enough to get a picture of Eric surrounded by his niece and nephews. What I missed, however, was one of them asking Kelsey (Eric’s girlfriend) if she is their Aunt now. And whether she and Eric would be getting married. 
The egg wash helps the rolls to brown AND helps the garnish adhere. In this case, there was poppy seeds, sesame seeds and kosher salt. Shannon makes excellent dinner rolls.
It was nice having all the kids together. Left to right are Amy, Eric, Shannon, and Kelsey.
I’ll be kicking myself for a while for not capturing shots of the parents. It really was a lovely Christmas celebration.
Tonight, we’re supposed to be getting together with some of our friends. Unless this “blizzard” actually materializes. We’re only expecting about six inches of snow, but you never know what we’ll actually get.
Rest assured, though, I won’t forget to take pictures of THAT.
Most years, I dread the arrival. There’s always so much to do. Such preparation. You know, it’s a lot of work.
This year, I’m excited. I’d be more excited if the whole family were together. If that son-in-law of ours wasn’t on the other side of the world and all. But then, if guys like him didn’t do what he does (Army stuff), we might not be able to celebrate Christmas.
At least our oldest, who spent last Christmas in India, is home this year. Maybe next year the whole family will be together. I hope so anyway.
As for this year… I’m excited. Part of the fun of Christmas for me is finding stuff for people that 1. they aren’t expecting and 2. suits them perfectly.
This year there’s one gift for one person that is just PERFECT. Really. So I wish present exchange time would just get here already. Dang.
In the meantime, I’ve been amusing myself in odd ways. I really need to start baking. But first, I had to share some of the results of my amusing endeavors.
If I had a farm, I’d probably decorate my animals. Especially the cow. Though these sheep with lights around their necks are pretty cool.
That looks like a fun bunch. But I’m not sure the elf should be driving.
I look nice as a reindeer, don’t you think?
Woodland animals are the best.
In case I don’t make it back before Christmas, I’ll just say this now… I hope you and your families have a fabulous holiday!
So now it’s the day after…
I hope each and every one of you had a fabulous day. If it was even half as awesome as mine, I know it was good. Because our day was amazing.
It’s odd, though, because we only had a few people here. My Mom hasn’t been feeling well so she and my Dad did Thanksgiving alone at their house. My son-in-law, TJ, is still deployed. The grand kids were at their other grandparents’ house. Amy, who is still recuperating from foot surgery, stayed close to her own home and spent the holiday with friends. Eric’s girlfriend was with her family in Pennsylvania. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew are in Virginia (that’s where they live). So…
Our gathering consisted of Hubby, of course, my mother-in-law, Shannon, Eric and me. And the dogs. We can’t forget them. 🙂
We decided to be different this year and forgo some of the more-traditional fare (like a turkey). All of us prefer chicken. None of us are really crazy about pumpkin pie either. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Shannon, who also likes to cook, agreed that it would be fun to experiment. I’ve always wanted to try sausage stuffing. And I get REALLY tired of the same old side dishes all the time. We decided to start with the must-haves (chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy) and then add some new stuff. Shannon took the initiative to find some interesting recipes. She succeeded, too.
I really am not exaggerating when I said we started at 10:30 and didn’t stop.
Actually, Shannon started on Wednesday by baking totally-from-scratch cinnamon rolls just like Hubby makes. They were designated as our Thanksgiving breakfast. She loves to bake, and it shows. The cinnamon rolls were delicious.
One of the must-have-again-SOON recipes Shannon found was Bella’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon. Hubby, MIL and I really like Brussels Sprouts anyway. Shannon likes them, too. Eric doesn’t particularly care for them. But we all agreed that Bella’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon ROCKED.
Then there were the Roasted Beets and Sweets…
As much as I like red beets, I’ve never actually prepared them. Shannon hadn’t either. So we were both quite intrigued by the way the beets looked when freshly-peeled. The recipe was simple to follow and absolutely divine. If you’re a fan of red beets and sweet potatoes/yams, you have to try this Roasted Beets and Sweets recipe. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the finished product to show you.
I did mention that Shannon loves to bake, right? She’s my Kitchen Aide Pretzel Maker, remember? For dinner, she elected to make some dinner rolls. The recipe (actually called a formula) came from her bread maker’s Bible. Check these out…
Those were THE BEST rolls I have ever eaten. For serious. I’m not a huge bread fan. I mean, I like good-quality bread, but I’ve never been one to say, “Ooh, I would love to have some homemade rolls.” Now? We may never let Shannon move out. Having your own personal baker is AWESOME. Especially when they’re really good at it like Shannon.
While she and I cooked and baked, the dogs anxiously watched for our guests to arrive.
I baked an Apple Crumb Pie, too. Like the ones Brianna and I made back in October.
We used myriad spices as we cooked and baked. At one point, I had a few extra minutes and decided to reorganize the spice cabinet a bit. If you don’t do that periodically, things get completely out of hand. Shannon didn’t believe me when I told her we had FIVE different containers of garlic powder. So I got them out to show her.
When Eric still lived with us, we went through garlic powder like crazy. I prefer fresh garlic personally, but that boy loves him some garlic powder. Since it’s completely his fault that we had so much garlic in the cupboard, I made him take three of the five containers home.
The dogs were pretty good about staying out from under foot. Every now and then one of them would sneak back into the kitchen. But for the most part, they did pretty good.
Back to our experimentation…
The last experimental side-dish was Garlic Carrots. Oh. My. GAWD. They were very simple, and really, really, really good. They were quite possibly the best cooked carrots I have EVER eaten. Again, I am not exaggerating. They were THAT good.
We had two chickens because we made two kinds of stuffing. And the stuffing that’s cooked inside of the bird is ALWAYS better that the other stuff, so we had to have two chickens for the apples-to-apples comparison. The recipe Shannon chose was Awesome Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing. It was very good, but the traditional stuffing is still my favorite. That’s like one of my favorite things in the whole world to eat, so I’m not surprised that I liked it better. But the experimental stuffing was good, too.
I’m sort of bummed that I didn’t take pictures of all the side dishes, but we were busy! I did try and get a shot of the meal on the table. None of these pictures are particularly good (there’s at least one person I captured with a weird look on their face or something out of focus in each), but I am posting them anyway because they were all the pictures I got.
That picture is actually not bad, but Eric is missing.
This would’ve been a good one if Hubby hadn’t been goofing off and sporting a Gaige-face (Gaige loves to make goofy faces in pictures).
And in that last one, I caught my MIL with her eyes closed. Sorry, Mom!
We were all half-starved by this point. Shannon and I somehow messed up our timing. The chickens weren’t finished until at least two hours after they were supposed to have been done. So I couldn’t make everyone wait too long to eat.
And eat we did. It doesn’t look like there’s that much food on the table, but there was. And it was all fabulous. I made succotash, too. That’s a staple. And I didn’t mention the gravy. I make yummy gravy, if I do say so myself.
Once we were finished, the dogs got to eat their Thanksgiving meal. I use the chicken innards and necks to flavor the gravy base. Once that’s cooked for several hours, I always remove the innards, chop them all up and save it for the dogs. So they got that, some chicken, and a big dollop of gravy added to their bowls. They were all thrilled.
Even though we all wished the rest of the family could’ve come, we all agreed this was quite possibly our best Thanksgiving meal ever. Shannon and I really had a good time cooking together. And everyone enjoyed our experiments immensely. All-in-all, it was a very satisfying and very happy day.
Now, I think I’d better go and eat one of those leftover rolls of Shannon’s. And maybe some mashed potatoes and gravy, too. Plus some leftover stuffing…
I know it’s a cliche, but time really does fly.
Eric doesn’t read my blog, so I figured it would be safe to do an Eric through the years pictorial tribute.
Of course, most of the pictures I have are not digital or easy to get to so I’ve got a limited selection to work with.
Eric was even rocking it when he was a baby. We never really know what sort of influence we’ll be, or what impressions we’ll leave, as our kids are growing.
Eric was probably more like 2 and a half in that last shot. I’m glad he grew out of the “looking like a preppy” phase.
Eric’s very short-lived tenure as a Cub Scout. Activities like that and sports didn’t go over so well with the non-custodial parent.
It’s funny as I look through these pictures that I begin to realize I did influence the boy in a way. He’s got a bit of my goofy streak.
Eric in desperate need of a haircut. His hair is so thick, when his summer buzz cuts grew out, it always looked like he was sporting an Afro.
Fishing with Pop (my Dad) in Virginia.
Eric and my parents on his 12th birthday.
Curling with Tim. He was between 12-13 here I think.
Eric (age 14?) visiting with his brother and sister (on his father’s side) at Cherrystone Campground in Virginia, where I dropped him on the way home from my brother’s house.
This is Eric in uniform during his time at the Freestate Challenge Academy, a National Guard-sponsored youth program that rescued Eric (and the rest of us) from his challenging high school days.
Here’s Eric looking all “gangsta” with Hubby and I after Amy’s wedding.
I think my sense of humor definitely wore off on him. He’s a good sport about just about everything.
Here he is with his new, pink pouf at around 19. He needed a pouf and it was the only one we could find at Walmart.
This shot is relatively recent. I lifted it from his (or his girlfriend’s) Facebook page.
Speaking of girlfriend… here Eric is with Kelsey. This one is only about two months old. Ah, to be young and in love. They look so happy together. And she’s a real sweetheart, too.
Happy birthday, son!
Raising you wasn’t always easy (every kid presents a challenge), but I’m proud of the wonderful young man you have become. I love you!
Those three years have FLOWN by…
His party was actually on Saturday. Amy planned it in shifts so as not to overwhelm everyone. “Everyone” in this case being us old folks. Family was invited early in the day and the friends with their hordes of children came late in the day.
I wanted to get a picture of the three grandkids before the other children arrived and chaos ensued, but I didn’t. So I had to settle for pulling them outside and making them sit. Of course, by then they were all sugared-up and acting goofy, so this is the best I could do.
It’s not a great picture, but the others were much worse. Although I must say, I love the look on Joey’s face and the sparkle in his eye in the picture below, so I just cut the other two out. It is Joey’s birthday after all.
