Turkey and gravy
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potato casserole
Green bean casserole
Braid bread
Spinach and fruit salad
Christmas jello
Peanut butter black-bottom pie
Coconut cream pie
I went Christmas shopping first thing in the morning, began cooking mid-morning (with lots of help from Kate and Jan) and planned to eat around 4:30. All the food turned out nicely and tasted great when we sat down to eat at 6:00. Thanks to this blog, it will now be recorded that I no longer wish to do extensive holiday menus and am liking Mom's idea of soup, salad and rolls on Christmas Eve. I've prepared similar meals several times, and I think I might be getting worse at it. Maybe it's the last 2 1/2 years of sleep deprivation, but I just felt I was going in 12 different directions all day and my brain was not cooperating! Happily, Mom gave me these festive new Christmas dishes that added a merry flair to every meal in the month of December, but especially Christmas Eve dinner:
After dinner, we gathered props and costumes to act out the first-ever nativity with the Johnson family. I was super impressed with how seriously everyone took their costuming. Holly was first excited to be the angel and was all dressed in white,
but when she heard Gavin wanted to be a donkey, she insisted on being a
donkey too. Luckily Rayana doubled as both narrator and angel, and
actually memorized her lines as the angel. Andrew was so committed to his role as Joseph that he grew a full beard to look the part, and the paper crowns from the holiday crackers came in handy for the wise men.
2012 Johnson Family Nativity
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| The full cast in costume |
Holly slept in her sleeping bag on the floor in our room on Christmas Eve, and when she woke up she told us she wanted to eat "breskfisk" as usual. We told her it was Christmas morning and that we could go down and see if Santa came. After a second, she said, "Did he come to our house?" We got her excited and told her to wake up Andrew & Kate. We all went down together. Holly's reaction to it all was a little different than what I expected, but I don't think she really knew what to expect either. This is just the first two minutes of Christmas morning.
Adam got me a new sewing machine, a lovely blue dutch oven pot, two pretty pairs of earrings, and lots of good stocking stuffers. I got him a remote control helicopter, a storage rack to hang from the garage ceiling, a solar-powered mouse robot kit, a dry-fit basketball t-shirt, and an SD card for his Surface. Holly got him a pair of hula hoops, an adult-sized one and a kid-sized one, which were her idea while we were out shopping.
We gave Holly a Hello Kitty nightgown & slippers, Uno Moo, a Baby Jaguar stuffed animal, a soft sheepdog stuffed animal, a Dora van, and some childrens' books about Jesus and having faith. Ben got an alligator puppet, a little dog that rolls along on the floor, and a ball that rolls around on the floor on its own, and a nonstop top. Santa brought Holly a Biscuit dog puppet and a Little Pup, a Little People airplane, and Biscuit books. Ben got a toy microphone, a puppy car, some board books, and fruit feeder. We were the fortunate recipients of plentiful Christmas giving.
After all the presents were opened, we had a breakfast pizza and homemade eggless egg nog, then everybody except me got ready and went up to Aaron & Rayana's to play with all the new toys for the afternoon and record the musical number they sang in our ward the Sunday before, "Away in a Manger." (Video hopefully to come soon.) Unfortunately I started feeling sick, so I stayed home with Ben and we had a very quiet and peaceful Christmas afternoon here together. But it was a good Christmas all in all, and by the end of the day I felt that annual feeling of sadness that comes when the Christmas season ends. Can't wait till next year.
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