Christmas Three Ways - Part 1

Our Christmas celebrations started on the Sunday before Christmas with a get together over at my Mom's house.  My sisters, Stephanie & Leslie, Leslie's husband, Zach and my Mom, Carol were there.  Gordon had to work...again...the company had an install that weekend & things are too tight for us for him to miss any work.

For lunch we had baked ham with all of the fixin's.  I brought homemade cranberry orange relish and whole cranberry sauce for my dish(es).  Dinner was delicious.  As a standard rule ever since we were growing up, the table must be cleared and the dishes have to be washed & dried before we can start opening presents.  Not that big of a deal nowadays that we are older, but when we were kids, it always seemed like it took forever to get those dishes done!!  And how rude of the adults to just sit there & watch us work & not even lift a finger to help....Geesh.  Those days are long gone & now my Mom has an actual dishwasher, so things go much more quickly!!!

Mom's tree

 GT couldn't wait to start opening presents, and once he did...he had a BLAST!!  My sisters (mostly) and my mom spoiled both of my kids with their very first taste of Christmas for the year.

This was his reaction almost every present...he sure knows
how to make a gift giver feel good!!

Pretty girls

The real surprise of the day came when my little sister, Leslie, opened a teddy bear that my older sister, Stephanie, had restuffed for her.  When Leslie was in college (it had to be at least 7 or so years ago now) her dog, Koda, tore all of the stuffing out of Leslie's favorite childhood teddy bear while she was at class/work one day...Leslie was devastated.  She was going to school in Rolla, MO at the time and the only thing she could do was call us (me, Mom & Steph) and cry...and cry...and cry...  We told her to gather the pieces and we would get him back together.  The "pieces of Teddy" were in my basement next to my sewing stuff for a long time after that.  It was a very intimidating project, to say the least, and while I knew that he could be put back together, I wasn't so confident that I would be the one to do it.  Cut to this year and to make an even longer story short....my Uncle George is dating this woman who...was able to fix the teddy bear!!  So for Christmas this year, Leslie unwrapped her bear.  For the second time in her life...on a Christmas...

She was THRILLED!!!

I'll have to get a picture of the teddy bear close up.  Stacie, the woman who fixed it, did an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G job.  I mean...when my grandma saw the bear for the first time after it was fixed, SHE almost cried!!!

So, needless to say, Christmas with my Mom & sisters was a success.  We've had a very eventful year between the four of us; a birth, a marriage, a divorce & a marathon...hopefully 2012 will be a little slower paced for all of us.

While we are not able to always buy gifts for the people that we love, we do try to give special gifts that are handmade or that we have put special thought into.  This year, I was struggling with what I was going to give my mom & sisters.  Until I came across this.  So, originally I was going to make one for my mom, but then I decided that my sisters would probably also like one.  Here they are with their presents.

I am very happy with the finished products and I think they were very pleased, too.  I let them each pick which wreath they wanted.  Pretty sure they are all already being proudly displayed at each of their houses, too!!  Success!

Our second round of celebration came on Christmas Eve when we met Gordon's mom, Wanda & her husband, Dr. Lowther (OK - I feel really weird here for explaining who they are to you like this...I call them - Wanda & Jer.  aka - Mimi & Papa) for dinner at Andria's Steakhouse in Chesterfield, MO.  Gordon's sister, Regina, her boyfriend, Chris & our neice and nephew, Morgan & Mason were also there.

(Ok...so...if I'm ever going to get of this posted...I'm going to have to do it in parts...You just read Part 1 - Parts 2 & 3 are a work in progress.  : )  I'll leave you with a few snapshots so you will definitely want to come back for more!!  LOL

Christmas Three Ways - Parts 2 & 3 to come...Stay tuned!!