Like many of you our holiday lives are in flux. This year we are at our oldest daughter’s home. We have yet to work out whether we will then go to the youngest’s or she will come here with whomever. She was having coughing issues yesterday, so that is another complication. Hopefully, we will see the great grand also. Griefs of many types of losses seem to pile up as we age. Perhaps it also gives us a longing for our heavenly home where loss is no longer an issue.
That hurts, Jo. Glad you have friends and others to be engaged with in the absence of being with family. Not the same, of course, nor does it erase the hurt, but it turns the hurt into helping someone else. Redemption.
Merry Christmas Eve! Warm here and not Christmasy at all except for the tree, music, decorations and the wonderful aroma those baking cookies have created in the house!
Praying the Lord works out all things for His good pleasure in our lives. It doesn’t always turn out looking as we would have it but choosing to rest in His divine direction is always perfect.
We have resigned ourselves to being alone at Christmas..with one daughter living with us being here as well. We will hear nothing from son, estranged daughter and not even daughter who lives but a half hour away. Sometimes it stings but it’s our reality. I’ll call Mom and FaceTime with my younger sister as they all gather together back home. Above all our prayer for them…the true meaning of this day does not get lost in the chaos of this world…
Jo, will your sister be disappointed if you don’t go over to her house?
My husband and I will have a very quiet Christmas. We celebrated with kids and grandkids at Thanksgiving, perhaps ten hours of having our younger daughter and her boyfriend, two days and a night with our older daughter and her family. I’m sure we will talk with them by phone at some point over the next two or three days, but we won’t see anyone except each other, and my husband’s health is poor enough that it will be a muted celebration. The last two or three days he has managed a very short walk outside, as far as the mailbox, but other than half a dozen walks to the mailbox, he hasn’t left the house except for medical stuff since mid-November, and I think he has managed two complete church services and maybe three partial ones in this entire year; usually he livestreams at home, but a handful of times he hasn’t even managed that, but has gone down for a nap just before time for the service, or after it has started.
When I was a child, my older brothers would come to our house on Christmas Eve. Two of my brothers went to my sister’s house on Thanksgiving (the same sister who hasn’t talked to me for nearly five years), but as far as I know, no two of us siblings will be together for Christmas, and I know two of my brothers won’t see most of their children, nor will we see ours. I would dearly love a Christmas in which most of us seven could be together with each other and with our kids and grandkids, but the seven of us live in seven states, our kids and grandkids add some additional states, and there are enough estrangements or “rarely willing to come see us” in there that even local family won’t all see each other.
Oh, Jo, I gave my husband three choices of what to eat tomorrow: pork chops, a roast chicken, or mango chicken. He chose the mango chicken!
Our house smells of onions and celery which I like. I did a big batch of sautéed onions for the squash casserole. Now I am doing onions and celery for the dressing.
It smells much better in here than when I stepped outside last night. It smelled like skunk, and I was surprised to smell that here in the upburbs (closer in than suburbs). I asked son to go outside and take a whiff. He came back in and said someone is smoking marijuana.
Earlier in the day, as happens often, in my carport and front yard I could smell cigarette smoke. I thought how ironic that I can smell what is on my neighbor’s breath yet we have only had maybe two or three short conversations in that many years. I think it must be the younger set who live with her who were celebrating Christmas with the skunk.
I told Art about it this morning, and he said he never thought marijuana smelled like skunk. I said it had changed from what it used to be. I told him once while hiking with son at our nearby park that I had smelled this new age marijuana and that had been my first experience with it. I had forgotten about that.
19 for dinner, here, tonight. Including Hill all the way from Sicily!
The same crew, minus Hill, will gather at my son’s house for dinner tomorrow.
I just bought the last three gifts–gift cards– and merely need to finish wrapping. (Again!).
The all-day cooking begins in ten minutes.
Let the servants be on alert (washer, dryer, dishwasher, blender, Kitchenaide, stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, etc. with a drop in from the vaccuum cleaner), it begins AGAIN!
Merry Christmas all.
Isn’t it lovely JESUS is the reason for the season?
We will have a simple meal much like we had for Thanksgiving. Turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, squash casserole, green bean casserole, collard greens, and roasted Brussel sprouts. I am doing the first four and Brother is bringing the last three. Son may make another pumpkin pie as we still have a frozen pie shell and fixings left from Thanksgiving.
We have our church Christmas Eve candlelight service later today.
I made the cornbread for the dressing from Bob’s Red Mill cornmeal because it is Non GMO. I used instructions on the package. It is very good, fyi
At D1’s for the holiday. With 8 children, there’s rarely a dull moment. D3 also lives here, and our son will join us. Plus D1’s parents-in-law will come tomorrow.
While here we’ll take the oldest and youngest grandchildren for ice cream to celebrate their birthdays. The oldest turned 16 yesterday and the youngest turned 2 on the 13th.
Wandering Views 
Like many of you our holiday lives are in flux. This year we are at our oldest daughter’s home. We have yet to work out whether we will then go to the youngest’s or she will come here with whomever. She was having coughing issues yesterday, so that is another complication. Hopefully, we will see the great grand also. Griefs of many types of losses seem to pile up as we age. Perhaps it also gives us a longing for our heavenly home where loss is no longer an issue.
That hurts, Jo. Glad you have friends and others to be engaged with in the absence of being with family. Not the same, of course, nor does it erase the hurt, but it turns the hurt into helping someone else. Redemption.
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Merry Christmas Eve! Warm here and not Christmasy at all except for the tree, music, decorations and the wonderful aroma those baking cookies have created in the house!
Praying the Lord works out all things for His good pleasure in our lives. It doesn’t always turn out looking as we would have it but choosing to rest in His divine direction is always perfect.
We have resigned ourselves to being alone at Christmas..with one daughter living with us being here as well. We will hear nothing from son, estranged daughter and not even daughter who lives but a half hour away. Sometimes it stings but it’s our reality. I’ll call Mom and FaceTime with my younger sister as they all gather together back home. Above all our prayer for them…the true meaning of this day does not get lost in the chaos of this world…
LikeLiked by 4 people
Jo, will your sister be disappointed if you don’t go over to her house?
My husband and I will have a very quiet Christmas. We celebrated with kids and grandkids at Thanksgiving, perhaps ten hours of having our younger daughter and her boyfriend, two days and a night with our older daughter and her family. I’m sure we will talk with them by phone at some point over the next two or three days, but we won’t see anyone except each other, and my husband’s health is poor enough that it will be a muted celebration. The last two or three days he has managed a very short walk outside, as far as the mailbox, but other than half a dozen walks to the mailbox, he hasn’t left the house except for medical stuff since mid-November, and I think he has managed two complete church services and maybe three partial ones in this entire year; usually he livestreams at home, but a handful of times he hasn’t even managed that, but has gone down for a nap just before time for the service, or after it has started.
When I was a child, my older brothers would come to our house on Christmas Eve. Two of my brothers went to my sister’s house on Thanksgiving (the same sister who hasn’t talked to me for nearly five years), but as far as I know, no two of us siblings will be together for Christmas, and I know two of my brothers won’t see most of their children, nor will we see ours. I would dearly love a Christmas in which most of us seven could be together with each other and with our kids and grandkids, but the seven of us live in seven states, our kids and grandkids add some additional states, and there are enough estrangements or “rarely willing to come see us” in there that even local family won’t all see each other.
Oh, Jo, I gave my husband three choices of what to eat tomorrow: pork chops, a roast chicken, or mango chicken. He chose the mango chicken!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Merry Christmas Eve to y’all, too!
Our house smells of onions and celery which I like. I did a big batch of sautéed onions for the squash casserole. Now I am doing onions and celery for the dressing.
It smells much better in here than when I stepped outside last night. It smelled like skunk, and I was surprised to smell that here in the upburbs (closer in than suburbs). I asked son to go outside and take a whiff. He came back in and said someone is smoking marijuana.
Earlier in the day, as happens often, in my carport and front yard I could smell cigarette smoke. I thought how ironic that I can smell what is on my neighbor’s breath yet we have only had maybe two or three short conversations in that many years. I think it must be the younger set who live with her who were celebrating Christmas with the skunk.
I told Art about it this morning, and he said he never thought marijuana smelled like skunk. I said it had changed from what it used to be. I told him once while hiking with son at our nearby park that I had smelled this new age marijuana and that had been my first experience with it. I had forgotten about that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
19 for dinner, here, tonight. Including Hill all the way from Sicily!
The same crew, minus Hill, will gather at my son’s house for dinner tomorrow.
I just bought the last three gifts–gift cards– and merely need to finish wrapping. (Again!).
The all-day cooking begins in ten minutes.
Let the servants be on alert (washer, dryer, dishwasher, blender, Kitchenaide, stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, etc. with a drop in from the vaccuum cleaner), it begins AGAIN!
Merry Christmas all.
Isn’t it lovely JESUS is the reason for the season?
LikeLiked by 4 people
We will have a simple meal much like we had for Thanksgiving. Turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, squash casserole, green bean casserole, collard greens, and roasted Brussel sprouts. I am doing the first four and Brother is bringing the last three. Son may make another pumpkin pie as we still have a frozen pie shell and fixings left from Thanksgiving.
We have our church Christmas Eve candlelight service later today.
I made the cornbread for the dressing from Bob’s Red Mill cornmeal because it is Non GMO. I used instructions on the package. It is very good, fyi
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We just picked up our Christmas Eve/Christmas Day food from our favorite rest. Turkey, ham, all the fixins and dessert.
It will be just the 6 of us, and maybe the 2 granddaughters if the scheduling works out.
A nice Christmas, with no pesky traveling, and not in a hospital.
That’s a win/win for us.
Aj
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At D1’s for the holiday. With 8 children, there’s rarely a dull moment. D3 also lives here, and our son will join us. Plus D1’s parents-in-law will come tomorrow.
While here we’ll take the oldest and youngest grandchildren for ice cream to celebrate their birthdays. The oldest turned 16 yesterday and the youngest turned 2 on the 13th.
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I guess I should add that D2 and her family moved to Oregon in October, so we wont be seeing them.
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Son made cranberry sauce from scratch. Three ingredients: cranberries, cane sugar, and orange zest. I never knew. So easy, pleasy!
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Merry Christmas from the East Coast! I hear fireworks!
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