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Friday, December 26, 2008

We had a nice Christmas...

Andrew didn't care about the presents -at all- and focused solely on the stairs. We don't have stairs at our house, except to the basement, but those ones are a death trap (slippery wood stairs leading to an unfinished basement); we keep the door to the basement closed always. I could not get him to sit still for presents, so I just let him go play on the stairs (I sat on the bottom just in case he fell, but he's pretty good at going both directions without incident). Christmas Eve we spent at my grandparents' house. Andrew had some goodies and then we went downstairs to open presents. I was showing him all his neat toys but he didn't care. We went back home and after Andrew went to sleep, the hubby and I watched Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington. It was very good! DH got it for Christmas from my mom.

Christmas morning we woke up and went over to my mother's house. She cooked up a huge breakfast: pancakes (which I don't eat, but my siblings enjoyed them), scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. It was delicious! I gave my mom her presents: the first one was a new pan--a deep frying pan that can be used for cooking up a variety of foods. Then I gave her the special gift I got for her in September. She never received her senior yearbook from 1978. She ordered it, custom engraved with her name, but when she went to pick it up they didn't have it. So, back in September I had this brilliant idea of tracking a yearbook down for her. I called her high school and talked to the woman who runs the yearbook club; coincidentally, she also graduated with my mother. The next day she called me back and said a classmate just happened to have an extra! I made a $30 donation to the school and the yearbook was in my hands (well, DH's--he went and picked it up while I was at work). I then got some gold sticker letters and put her initials on the cover (not quite the same as the original would have been, but close enough). So, imagine my mother's surprise when she opened this present! She was like, "Where did you get this???" When I told her the story, she was so impressed. It was only 30 years late, but I'm happy she has her yearbook. She hadn't even seen it up until this point! Also, her senior year, she was deep into her relationship with my "father"--a very abusive, manipulative relationship. She had no life outside of that relationship, so now she can reminisce and look at some memories from that year.

Then we had the present opening. Andrew cruised for the stairs. Up and down. Up and down. He had a good time! DH and I took turns on safety duty. (I always think he'll be fine, but the one moment I turn my back, he could go flying down and break his neck or something). I did get him to look at the Christmas tree for awhile, and play with some of his presents. My mother spoiled him--and us! We have TONS of gift cards--for mostly restaurants but also the 2 grocery stores we shop. My mom had to be at work by 11:00, so we went home shortly thereafter.

We headed up to my brother-in-law's house in Rochester and arrived at 2:00. More of the same--Andrew on the stairs. Up and down. Up and down. I was able to distract him with food at dinner time. We ended up heading out of there a little too late, because a storm hit. We drove home in poor visibility and blowing snow, but only saw one car in the ditch. DH is a great driver in less than favorable weather, and comandeered us safely home. It only took us maybe 20 minutes longer than it should have.

All in all, a great Christmas! I forgot to take pictures, but I think DH got a couple of Andrew and me in front of my grandparents' Christmas tree. I'll get those uploaded soon.

3 comments:

Birdee said...

Sounds like a very nice Christmas - and what a wonderful gift to give your mom.

Happy Holidays my friend =D

nancy said...

heheh. The gestational "sack". That's hilarious because I saw it for the 1st time just yesterday.

Another pregnancy annoyance is when people say "dialate" instead of dilate. I rarely see it typed wrong, but it's pronounced wrong ALL the time.

That's really funny about Andrew and the stairs. We don't have stairs either and my inlaws did (not anymore) and that is all the kids wanted to do. Up/Down. Up/Down. Up/Down.

So - why don't you eat pancakes??

nancy said...

in response to your response ...

I never would pick the sweet stuff over the salty stuff either. I would much rather have eggs and ham (don't like sausage and bacon is definitely a distant 2nd from ham) than filling up on pancakes or waffles.

But then I found "it" for me. Dry pancakes. They have to be thick and dough-y. And moist. No butter. No syrup. Just a plain pancake.

Here is my way too long, drawn out story behind it ...

I was starving one morning at work and didn't have more than $1 on me at the time. So I picked the most filling item I could think of for under $1. The chef made me a giant thick pancake. And I just tore it off and ate it plain because the cafeteria doesn't have real butter and I don't do margarine. It was so freaking good.

I still won't just get pancakes. But now I will order 1 plain pancake À la carte. I rarely get a good pancake, as they are usually too thin or too dry, but I try each time now.

This xmas I made waffles and bacon for the family. I would have usually just made eggs, but hell, I wanted to get off my swollen feet without making yet another breakfast. I make my waffles by melting butter and using a basting brush to cover the waffle iron with lots of butter (instead of cooking spray) before each waffle is poured. This makes the waffle batter take in real butter into it's "crust" with each one made. Then, I over cook it a few minutes, allowing the outsides to get crunchy, but not too crunchy! I still like it doughy.

When done, I brush the waffle with melted butter (this is why I need to make sure they are crunchy) and take it to the table and fill up every hole with fresh butter that is a little chilled - because I don't want it to all melt, I like a chunk-o-butter in each square. Then I broke up my bacon and put a little piece on top of each square that is filled with butter. Then I cut it on the seams, never cutting into a square. I dusted it with powdered sugar and poured on smuckers red raspberry syrup (it's in the syrup aisle. I just found it and used it for the 1st time on xmas). I ate it all with a giant glass of fat free milk.

It was SO good.

I just wrote way too much about pancakes and waffles.