Christmas Part II

After I dropped the girls off on Friday, I went to the mall and did a little...walking around. I didn't buy a thing. Then I came home and knitted for awhile. I still had a scarf to finish. I made scarves for my nieces and their American Girl dolls.

The next day, Christmas Eve, our family was meeting at our house for games, food, and drinks. Remember the bags the girls decorated? Well, I put them to good use and put gifts in them for winning a game.

Usually I have odds and ends that I pick up at garage sales in these bags, but this year I put other things in them, such as home made soap I got at the farmers market, mints, nail files, candy canes, etc. Plus I put a scratch off lottery ticket in each bag. Can you believe they like the dorky garage sale gifts better?

This picture is at an odd angle but it doesn't look right flipped. It's my little forest. Most people have a village....I have a woods!

I tidied up the house,

made drinks,

cleared the table and got ready for company.

This is called Slush Punch Freeze and it's a great drink for summer time, as it's slushy (does contain alcohol). It's also a great drink for menopausal women who are hot all the time ;-)

I also made special ice cubes. These trays are from Martha Stewart back in the day when she had "Martha by Mail" and she wasn't in stores.

These are by Wilton. Thing is, none of my drinks needed ice cubes! So I gave them all to my Sister to use on Christmas day.

I also finished wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve.

This is my gift to my Shug from me.

And this is how he wrapped his gift to me!

Beer was not inside. It was an Ipod docking station with speakers so I can listen to music from my phone. Me.....with an Iphone.....and a docking station...(snicker)

I met Vickie and Robert outside. Why? Because I was hot, and it was cold outside. I'm 53. Enough said.

Trent brought this to eat. Duck wrapped in bacon. He's a hunter. Taste like chicken!

He had to cook it a bit more, but he wanted it to be warm when we ate. I made a different version. You take pitted dates, put an almond in the center, wrap bacon around the date, and bake until the bacon is done. Yummy.

It's all good.

Time to eat.

We also celebrated my other nieces birthday. She was born on Christmas Eve. I didn't have 9 candles, but no matter....we made do!

We always make sure to wrap my nieces gifts in Birthday paper and make sure they have a birthday party/gift. Not to be confused or mixed up with Christmas. No complaining later about how their birthday got mixed in with Christmas.

A tradition that started accidentally. This niece is always here on Christmas Eve. And my Shug has always lifted her up to put the angel on the tree. Special....oh how my nieces are growing up.

Time for games..........and I'll post more later because I need to get busy and this dang computer is messing up.

Cindy Bee