Holidays!

What a week of celebration! I managed to get past the sickness enough to salvage the holiday. We shopped until we could barely shop anymore, wrapped until after midnight, had a little eggnog, and settled into bed for a restful Christmas Eve slumber.
The children awakened us pretty early on Christmas morning, but not before sunrise and we opened each gift one at a time so that we could relish and enjoy not only our gift, but each other's gifts as well. We all had a very happy time and played merrily afterward with our new treasures.
It was time to put on the turkey if we were to have it for lunch! I tried a new brand of turkey breast this year, which went from the freezer to the oven, in a cooking bag. It had a thermometer that popped out when it was done and a packet of gravy which only had to be heated and cooked. It was so simple. No basting, no fuss and it was so tender, juicy, and tasty! Everyone raved about it so that I almost felt ashamed to tell them how simple it was! We added to that my mother's dressing, greenbean casserole, lima beans, sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce and we had a veritable Christmas feast!
We spent several hours afterward watching Mama and Daddy open their gifts from my sister, Pat and chatting with them. Then we went home for a nice long nap.
My sister, JJ came to visit me later that night and we made a full day of Christmas until the wee hours of the next morning! But it was such fun to spend time with her. We so rarely get to spend any time together like that. When we can just sit and talk and laugh and cry and have 'sister' time together. It was one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year.
We just spent four days in Huntsville at Exposure Youth Camp. That is always a blast. I will blog about that and post pictures later. It has rendered me tired and ready for a little rest to prepare for the New Year's festivities that are quickly approaching.
I think I will try to get in a little shut-eye before dinner!