Our California Kids

We missed having Christmas with our kids, and kids of kids, 

this year. 

It was fun to see them together:

From L to R

The 'other' grandmother (Most Likely to be Merry), 

DIL Zoe (Most Likely to be Pay for it All), 

Kellan (Most Likely to Get Up First in the Morning),

Lex (Most Likely to Peek Under the Christmas Tree), 

son David (Most Likely to ask Santa to Define Good

and son, Chris (father of the littles) - (Most Likely to Shake the Gifts)

I had fun picking out the shirts. It was difficult to pick out the best sayings - some might have hurt feelings. Those I might have picked for me:

Most likely to cry when Christmas is over

Most likely to eat Santas cookies

Most likely to watch all the Christmas movies

Some of my favorites, that may or may not have been accurate descriptions for the family include:

Most likely to get lit

Most likely to be on the phone all night

Most likely to get tangled in the tinsel

Stomp!

We often call Kaitlyn our 'little stomper' because of her stumpy, stompy legs.

Saturday we saw some other stompers....

The theatrical show, "Stomp", is celebrating its 30th anniversary and a touring company came to Tampa.

We saw the original Stomp show in 1998 in Savannah, GA.

We thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you aren't familiar with the show, it is a high-energy percussion show, with great choreography, where the performers demonstrate coordinating rhythms using everyday objects, such as brooms, match boxes, sinks(with water) and metal kitchen implements, and garbage cans. 

The performers use everything on the set to drum on, with fingers, hands, drum sticks or other items. At one point several are in harnesses, suspended along the upper wall, where they drum on the collection of objects. 

Nothing is spoken. However, the stompers engage the audience through gestures and facial expressions, getting us to clap and cheer in the rhythms they want. 

This is the humorous fall guy in the show. He had us laughing simply by the lift of an eyebrow!

Here, at the close of the show, he had just signaled by changing the 'turn of a cell phone sign' that we could take pictures, and he hammed it up for us! 

One of the highlights of the show, for me, was a child that was sitting quite a ways behind me. From the pitch of his/her voice I'd guess they were around 6. The chortles of glee and the exclamations made me smile and laugh, too!

It was a lovely afternoon, despite the long drive into downtown Tampa.

Takeout and Takeaway

I really enjoyed our Christmas breakfast with our neighbors. We had not met several of them, and even some of the folks attending didn't know others. My 'takeaway' from our event was that we need to have more social activities with our neighbors!  One new friend said she'd have a Halloween party! We'll have to see where it goes from here. 

The weather was perfect! We were able to open our 3-panel sliding glass door and most folks congregated on the lanai, or just inside at the dining room table. 

We have almost recovered. 

Most of the dishes are washed.

Most of those have found their way back to their cabinets or boxes.

Speaking of boxes; I picked up some "Chinese takeout" boxes at Hobby Lobby.

The one remaining (green) can be seen in the pile of dishes.

It was a super idea. Everyone seemed to love grabbing some leftovers and taking them home in their takeout boxes! 

So, another of my 'takeaways' is that I should have containers when I have our annual breakfast next year! 

 

When Life Gives you Lemons... or Leftovers

 Make Quiche!

It's difficult to plan for a party, and know how much of each food item to buy. I had leftover eggs, ham, sausage and cheese. I also had some spinach, green onions and peppers. I had excess milk. 

I also had two frozen pie shells...

It sounds like a quiche...(or frittata)... to me!

These will be yummy some evening when I don't feel like cooking 

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to all!

The Calm Before the Storm

 We had another busy day of getting ready to meet and greet our neighbors and enjoy more than a bite to eat Christmas morning! We both had long lists of things to accomplish...and we made its through most everything. 

Tomorrow morning will be hectic, putting one dish in, stirring another, taking a casserole out, plating fruit and veggies, cheese and sweets, and getting them all in their places. Luckily the weather, if it cooperates, will be warm enough that much of the food can go out on the lanai.

Even though I had 'older' eggs for my hard-boiled eggs, evidently they weren't old enough! It took me far too long to peel them. I tried every trick, even my fail-safe method of shaking them in a jar of water. It was almost noon before I finished this one dish. 

I dropped the sugar container on the floor. 😜

Luckily it stayed upright and only a small amount flew out the top.

I had help cleaning it up right away. I laughed at the tongue tracks along the floor!

It almost looked as if a large snail had come through my kitchen.

I won the Stupid Award for the day! 😝

I decided my crockpot wasn't very festive so I wrapped a band of wrapping paper around it, cutting out a hole for the control knob.  Doesn't it look sweet? 

Now, I have to cook grits in it overnight.

Tell me, where is 'low'?

What about 'high'?

Does this model have a 'keep warm' setting?

So, now it is almost time for bed.

What's done is done.

What isn't finished can be addressed in the morning...

or perhaps it isn't that important!

This table holds serving pieces, sweets and crackers to be put together and put outside tomorrow.

The Mister's almost clean office is in the background. A few days ago one could barely walk in there. Since we moved it has been a repository for anything and everything we didn't know where else to store.

The hot foods will be served on the island. 

Coffee is set up in the background and other beverages will be on the counter to the left. 

As I said before,

what's done is done.

Merry Christmas to all...

and to all a good night!

Getting Ready for the Day

 The last few days have been busy. I've shopped a few times, at different stores and different times, trying to get everything I need for the varied dishes I'll serve for breakfast on Christmas. (Shopping at different stores and different times means I'm not hit with a huge surprise at checkout!) The Mister is in charge of the 'bar' and he has a few more things to get. 

I've been cleaning - mostly spending time working on the pool deck and the lanai...both areas we have neglected since the temps dipped to where neither of us prefers to swim. I've also pulled out serving dishes and seldom-used glassware so I can get them washed. 

I hemmed some Christmas fabric to make table coverings for a few of the serving tables and a card table for extra seating. The weather might be nice enough on Christmas morning so that we can open the sliding glass doors and put the card table by the pool. Have I ever mentioned that our new home is quite a bit smaller (I generally say 'cozier') than our previous house?! I'm still not certain where all of the serving dishes are going to go!

Tuesday I cooked 3 pounds of bacon. Using the griddle was a perfect solution. All of that bacon grease was so much easier to manage...and clean up was a breeze. On Christmas morning I can heat the bacon  and put it in the heated serving tray. The girls 'supervised' my cooking...hoping I'd drop a piece or two for them!

Tomorrow my prep continues. I have a list of food prep things I can do,  as well as the last minute house cleaning/tidying that would be nice to accomplish.  By the time I go to bed I hope to have all counters and tables ready for bowls, plates and trays...and I'll spend Christmas morning shoving casseroles in the oven, and pulling others out.

At some point I'll recover and remember why I wanted to invite all of our neighbors to breakfast on Christmas morning!