Our Christmas Celebration

We started Christmas Eve out with a candlelight service at LBC at 4pm.  I just loved hearing Melanie sing parts of the songs.  She knew most of Hark the Herald Angels Sing!  Next year we must practice the lyrics to Joy to The World and a few others, so she will be better able to sing along with us and worship!  Lynda and Dave joined us at church and came on up to our house. 

I made spinach and cheese mannicotti earlier in the day so I put that in the oven when we got home.  We had a lovely dinner with spinach salad, bread and steamed green beans.  Melanie blessed our meal with a perfect prayer of thanksgiving and praise for our Savior and how thankful we are for Jesus.  I wish I had it recorded as it was perfect!  We exchanged gifts and even got to skype with my sister,brother-in-law, my nieces and nephew.  The highlight of the video call was in seeing my sister’s tummy!  She is getting bigger and according to Johnny, her son, it is “gianormous!”  She isn’t due until April, so it will be interesting to see just what word he comes up with next to describe her growing belly!

   

The next morning, I was up early preparing breakfast for a few neighbors and our family.  This glorious sunrise, is what I awoke too along with a huge amount of wind that had been blowing all night. 

 

Santa of course had made it during the night and Melanie was super excited to see that he had eaten most of the cookies she had left.  She had also been concerned that he wasn’t going to be able to get into the house because we don’t have a chimney!  So, she logically concluded that I left the door unlocked for him! The day before, Melanie and my sister were talking and my sister had made a comment about wishing she was here to eat some of the cookies Melanie was baking that morning.  Melanie abruptly told her, “No, the whole plate is for Santa!”  Man, that’s a lot of cookies for one guy.  But we were thankful that she decided to share with us after all and not save them all for Santa. I was so honored to open our home, Christmas morning to our neighbors.  Three out of four came over.  It was wonderful.  I hope to be able to extend the invitation again next year and to a few more of our neighbors.  We all agree, we need to get to know each other in this newly built neighborhood.   We hope and pray that when we open our home, it gives glory to God and gives people who may not be saved a glimpse into what being a Christian really looks like.

 

Then in the afternoon, I made a prime rib!  Boy was I a bit nervous.  I consulted recipes from various sources.  Asked my friend Dennis, who cooks a lot.  I had never made one before.  It was Lynda’s idea and she had never made one before either.  The $40 price tag on the package heightened the nerves a bit more, because that is very expensive and I would hate to burn it.  So, in the oven it went…at 425 for 20 minutes and then at 325 for 2 hours 20 minutes.  At first the oven was so hot, it was filling with smoke, this got me more nervous…but I had to trust the recipes.  It came out perfect.  I just seasoned it with salt and pepper and garlic.   I minced the garlic and shoved it down in between the roast and where the butcher cut it off the bone.  Then when the roast was done, we scraped the garlic off.  Oh, my was it delish!  A little water in the bottom of the pan made some excellent au jus.  I sauteed some asparagus and we had more spinach salad.  I had forgotten to put the potatoes in the oven to bake, so we just nuked them in the micro.  They were still good but not the best they could have been.  I made a cherry pie too and my the end of the evening, I was exhausted and thankful I could sit down and relax. 

    

Sunday, we went to church and Sabine and Lauren came to visit us for while their parents continued packing.  Can you imagine packing and moving around the holidays?  I can’t, so we are trying to help them as much as we can with babysitting!  It was a pleasure to cuddle baby Lauren and for Melanie to have a playmate to break in all the new toys she was given.  Sabine even brought over her guitar and we were treated to a little duet! 

    

Then in the evening, Jason and Melanie headed out to hockey and I vegged out in the chair and watched several of the shows I have had recorded, such as The Closer, House, Grey’s Annatomy.  It was  a nice evening at home.  Do you think they like the hockey, or what?!  Go Kings!  Go Condors!