Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Card design by LaBelleVieDesign on Etsy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year dear blogging world! I hope that everyone had as lovely of a Christmas as we did here at Chez Putter. It’s always a busy three days for us, but it is filled with family, friends, and food so it’s all worth it. Here’s a little Christmas recap for you…

Christmas Eve

We headed south bright and early on Christmas Eve to spend time with my family. We arrived at my parents’ house, unloaded the food and presents and spent some time with them before heading out to an early church service. We went to services here, and it was a beautiful service with a great message. After church, we headed back to Mama and Daddy’s house for a great meal of prime rib roast, ham, corned beef, potato casserole, squash casserole, rolls, corn salad, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and strawberry salad. It was a lovely meal topped off with a yummy selection of desserts-red velvet cake, coconut cake, Toll House pie, and Hershey Bar cake.

Our group for dinner included my parents, my brother and SIL, my niece Katie, Mr. P and me, my uncle Joe, one of my brother’s friends, and one of my brother’s fellow policemen. With my brother being a cop, sometimes he has to work on the holidays and Mama always invites anyone from his shift to stop by if they can. So we usually have at least one police car parked at my parents’ house on the holidays, and sometimes as many as 3 or 4. My brother didn't have to work this year, but we still had one policeman with us. Luckily, the neighbors know my brother so they never think that we have any trouble on Thanksgiving or Christmas!

After dinner, we sat around and just enjoyed each other’s company for a while before Mr. P and I headed home with my brother and his family. They have a little apartment built onto their house, so we stay with them when we are in town. We sat up and talked with them for a little while before turning in for the night. 

Christmas Morning

We were up early and headed back over to my parents’ house with my brother and his family for gift opening and Christmas breakfast. We had a lot of fun during the gift opening. Mr. P and I had selected some unique, special gifts for my dad and my brother and it was such a treat to watch them open the gifts. After the gift-opening, we sat down to our annual Christmas breakfast of ham, cheese grits, hash brown casserole, breakfast casserole, and strawberry salad. Yummy! We always have so much food on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, but Mama fixes all of us kids up with lots of to-go containers so we have the leftovers to eat after Christmas. And Mr. P and I have certainly enjoyed ours yesterday and today!

Christmas Afternoon

After breakfast, Mr. P and I packed up the vehicle and headed back home. We made a stop at home for a little while to unload and unpack. We also took some time to open our gifts from each other during this time. There’s nothing better than sitting together in front of our fireplace and the Christmas tree as we open each other’s gifts. I don't even care that much about the gifts at that point, it's just nice for us to have some quiet time together.

After that, we headed over to his parents’ house to spend the rest of the day with his parents and his sister and her family. After the gift opening and dinner, we ended the night by playing a board game. It was men vs. women in Trivial Pursuit this year, and the women prevailed!

Day after Christmas

It’s one more family celebration for us on the 26^th with my mother-in-law’s family.  They live about 2 hours away and my mother-in-law and her brother alternate hosting each year. This was her year to host, so we didn’t have to make the drive but we did offer to help out with food. So I was up early on the 26^th to make lasagna, appetizer cheese bake, and a Toll House pie. One more round of food and gifts ensued—I swear I was absolutely waddling by last night!

Luckily, my nieces and nephews received the JustDance 3 game for the Wii, so last evening we took turns at a dance off. I surprised the nieces and nephews with my prowess in dance-they didn’t realize that I had 20+ years of ballet, tap, and jazz that helped me earn the top score of the night. It was so much fun and it felt so good to get up and move after all of the food we’ve been eating!

As for today, we have both been relaxing around the house…and I have to confess that I was in my PJs all day. We don’t take these types of days very often but we were both so busy with work this month, then when we finally got some time off it was spent preparing for Christmas and celebrating. But we both have the rest of the week off, so we thought we could take a day for some R & R! It was also cold and rainy, with even some snow mixed in so that made for a perfect day to stay inside.  I wasn’t completely lazy though-I straightened up the house, unloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned out the refrigerator. We also cooked a yummy dinner together of mini burgers with smoked cheddar, garlic fries, and corn salad.

We’re snuggled in for the night-Miss Sunny is curled up in the basement and we are relaxing upstairs. I'm getting ready to head into the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee with my new Keurig coffeemaker that my thoughtful staff gave me last week. I'm already totally addicted to it...and so is Mr. P!

Have a great night!

MHE