Hello!

 Well. I'm finally back from one of the nicest Christmas celebrations I have had in years! I was running late all season...and, maybe that is the reason. I got everything done that needed to be done and the other things I just kind of accepted as "maybe next year" kind of things. I have let go of the fancy Christmas dinners-we actually did that a few years ago when we realized that those of us in the kitchen were missing out of a lot of fun family time and so it was that we veered to a much simpler meal. Since we have a number of vegetarians we went with both meat and veggie lasagnas (from the Publix freezer section-not homemade), my favorite broccoli/cauliflower salad (which also has pistachios, Craisins and bacon bits with a creamy sweet & sour dressing-delicious and red, white and green), and corn casserole as my contributions and then others added with a layered salad, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and lots of appetizers plus everyone's cookies for dessert.

And, this year, everyone got here pretty close to the beginning of dinner...which is hard for daughter #1 and her family because they try to fit in Christmas morning at their house and then have the farthest to come.

We visited during the apps and food and then took a few minutes to grab some pictures before heading to gifts. We have also cut back a lot on the gifts-mostly just for the "youngsters" now although I still like to give something to everyone and then they all still want to give to me-which is totally unnecessary since they do so much for me all year long but, much appreciated!

I started my celebrations on Christmas Eve with daughter #3 and her family. We went downtown for an early dinner at Harry's and Light Up Ocala before heading to church for a beautiful service full of instrumentals and songs.

We got a few posed pictures but the rest of the day was just shots taken randomly...none of them are perfect but they are reminders of a beautiful day!

We've started doing the White Elephant gift exchange and that is always good for some laughs.

 This year there were so many game ideas going around the internet so grand daughter #2 rigged up one where she wrapped MANY  gift wrapped boxes inside of each other starting from quite large down to very small-which contained a monetary gift inside. Each of us donned oven mitts in turn and tried to open as much of the outside gift as we could while the next person in turn was trying to roll doubles on some dice. Once they did, your turn was over and it was on to the next person. It was so much fun and even though some of us don't really consider ourselves all that competitive-especially against people we love-the claws came out and the noise level went up. It was so much fun-and, in the end, grandson #2 ended up winning. Of course, he was right after me so I did most of the hard work on that little box for him. Lol

Those that needed to headed home later that night and the others spent the night at my house and it was like old times. I had three out of the four oldest grand daughters and it was like old times-so much reminiscing and laughing...and, when Morgan broke out an old video of a "play" with a dance routine that they did years ago, we were all in tears from laughter!

The next day we headed over to daughter # 3's house for lunch and games before the three girls headed up to Gainesville to spend the night at my oldest grand daughter's house and my oldest daughter and I collapsed and watched movies.

Everyone is now home safe and sound...well, except for daughter #3 and her family who are in Charleston visiting with my SIL's family and my brother and SIL who are in Philly for NYE and the Mummer's Parade. I have two of my grand dogs here and we are just truly taking life easy, doing only what we want and trying to take in all of the decoration for a bit longer until they all come down for another year-and Valentine's appears.

The dogs and I are anticipating a very quiet New Year's Eve-thankfully these two aren't bothered by the sound of fireworks-where I will have my traditional NYE snacks and probably my traditional falling asleep before the ball drops. In any case, I'll be back in full force soon. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.