Fun and Festive

Well, Christmas per the calendar is over. Those in the Catholic faith know that Christmas continues on for a little while longer and then we have Ephinany.

We were graced and blessed by guests this year at our house. My father in law made the trip in from Leetonia on Saturday afternoon. My mother in law drove in from Kansas and arrived Saturday night. My brother in law and his family could not join us since my brother in law came down with the flu. We had an unplanned visit from Jon's cousin Angie, her husband Jeremy, and their baby girl Julianna. Angie found out from her Mom that Jon's Dad was at our place so she called to see if we could get together and visit. Julianna is an adorable little girl although she doesn't like anyone to hold her other than Mommy right now. My father in law tried and the beard got her attention for a few seconds before she started shrieking.

Like most families, we had a lot of food. Our selections varied from a 3 foot Italian sub for lunch on Saturday right on through homemade ravioli, homemade meatballs, and homemade sauce on Tuesday with ham, prime rib, peppermint ice cream in between.

We made several things from scratch. We made our own cheese ravioli. Now that our son is 4 1/2, it is fun to see him become involved. He pulls a chair up to our upstairs kitchen island so he can see. He helped PapPap (Jon's Dad) put together the cheese filling for the ravioli by grinding black pepper into the mix. Later, he came back and turned the crank on pasta machine to roll out the ravioli dough. Jonnie was not interested in the meatballs. He talked for days about making Gingi cookies, the gingerbread guy from the "Shrek" movies. I bought gum drops and tubes of icing to help make that possible. We got the dough rolled out and cut out one gingerbread man and decorated him with the gum drops. Jonnie left the kitchen content having helped make one cookie. He came back a little later to help with eating the cookies!

The adults were up early on Christmas morning so we could all get showers before we opened presents. My husband woke up Jonnie who did not realize what was going on until someone mentioned "presents". Once he heard that, he perked right up. He was interested not just in his presents but in everyone else's, too.

After presents came mass. There volunteers to help with 10 AM mass were few and far between. Since we had family with us, I asked my husband to usher. My mother in law took me over to the church early so I could clean up the pews and hand out bulletins. I was very surprised when my hubby walked in all handsome in dress slacks and a collared sweater given that he'd been in a tshirt and jeans when I left the house. A few minutes later my husband came up and asked if anyone was taking up the gifts for Communion. I told him that we would do that. Jon wanted Jonnie to carry the money basket. I was a bit nervous but Deacon Tony said "it will be fine". Jon and I took up the collection from the pews and put everything in to the big basket. Jon got Jonnie and gave him the basket. He walked in front Jon who carried the wine and me who carried the hosts. I was nervous and proud all at the same time!

My mother in law left to head north to see other family after mass was over. My father in law, husband, and I headed home to prepare the big Italian feast. We all filled our bellies until they almost burst. I laid down on the couch after we ate and ended up falling asleep. I woke up and no one was around. The guys had all gone upstairs to play Jonnie's V-smile. He got a portable V-Smile plus some new games and an extra controller for his non-portable V-smile.

Time seemed to fly so that must mean that I had fun. The alarm went off at 5:15 AM today and it was time for me to get cleaned up and head out for work. I had planned on going to Kroger after work tonight but part of me just wants to go home and relax and put off Kroger until later in the week. Tomorrow, Jon and I are going to meet at Lowe's to pick up some things and then go to dinner at Red Lobster (I have a gift card). Soon it will be Jon's birthday and I'm going to make him a carrot cake from scratch and it's going to be a two-layer cake! I found a recipe for caramelized pearl onions and peas (maybe they'll taste better caramelized) and Rachael Ray showed a great steak dish on her show Monday morning that is smothered in onions. It had a cheese sauce but I am going to get some Asiago cheese to sprinkle over the onion-smothered steak.

Finally, I used some pictures that we got between Thanksgiving and Christmas to make some photo Thank You cards at Shutterfly. So many of our friends had Shutterfly Christmas cards and I finally decided that I needed to try it for myself!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Many blessings for happy and safe 2008.