We wish you a merry Christmas
What a difference a year makes. Last year on this day, Andi was puking and we were all hoping we didn't catch her "flu." See the little flu bug in the red hat. Glad we caught her.
Here's a picture from last year at Christmas and from today. 
We had a great day around here. We went to church and afterwards, came home for lunch. Vicki, Ed & Samantha came over and we ate a lunch that Big Guy called "spectacular." Anytime you can fix a lunch and get a compliment like that, you know it was yummy. And it was -- I didn't have to bribe, coerce or threaten anyone to eat - to stop, yes, but not to eat it. I made a stuffed pork loin from a recipe I saw the other day on The Food Network. I now have permission to sit and watch more TV - as long as it's cooking shows. 
We never got around to counting our blessings at Thanksgiving dinner, so we did that today and everyone over the age of 18 pretty much ended up crying as we recounted so many things we have to be thankful for. The miracle of Sophie's birth and the fact that she can hear us sing to her topped many a list today. We are thankful we live in a country where we can freely worship God and I am thankful that I am able to school our children at home. Listening to Big Guy list his many blessings - started the tears flowing. Our family is so blessed in so many ways - and we are very blessed with friends we count as family. 
Andi got a new checkerboard cake pan, so she made a cake and fiddled with a cake icing tool to decorate it. Not too shabby for her first attempt. 
The cake turned out to be more marbled than checkered, but that didn't stop anyone from eating it as soon as she gave the OK. 
We threw in a couple of games of Boggle and pretty soon we were out of time to make cookies for Santa, so Big Guy ran out and got some that you just plop on the pan and bake. I know for a fact that Santa is OK with that plan.
I ended up making some Ginger Crinkles though so Santa could have had homemade cookies after all.
Bill has been gone all day so he missed all of this fun. His dad has been in the hospital for several weeks and was getting discharged today. So Bill went to welcome him home and he took a stuffed pork loin and all the side dishes to fix him a great Christmas dinner at home. Bill didn't want to take any of the kids since they are just getting over all the various cruds and we didn't want to be passing any of that along. He should be home soon and will be watching a Christmas movie with the kids before bedtime.
Tomorrow should be a wonderful, peaceful Christmas spent at home with my family. I love it. Merry Christmas everyone.
