another lisa

So... we all survived the past 24 hours... last nite went pretty well... we got to relax most of the time (watching "It's a Wonderful Life", playing Settlers of Catan and listening to music, including Tom's Metallica cd) Later, around midnight, we had a burst of energy and got the potatos and turnip peeled and chopped up into the pot, the turkey stuffed and into the oven, and around 2 am, I let everyone open their stockings... heck, it was Christmas morning after all!

Then we said good night, but of course, by 4 am, when Eric walked around the house to check on things, almost everyone was still up. His kids, Amelia, Elizabeth and Oliver (ages 17, 21 and 13) were having a little reunion in the basement playing video games and cuddling. They hadn't been together since the summer when Oliver was visiting from BC. We see Elizabeth about three times a year (birthday, summer, and Christmas). Amelia lives with us.

Sarah and her boyfriend James were wide awake as they had slept earlier in the evening when they were watching a movie. Sarah is 19. This is the first time I have let her have a boyfriend "sleep" over. .. Meanwhile while all was quiet from Dorothy's room (age 21), she apparently couldn't sleep and so was sewing and reading most of the night. My youngest brother Tom (age 17) was online all night talking to his girlfriend (who is really not his girlfriend, he claims). And my dad might have gotten some sleep, but he had the tv on at 4 am... so we aren't sure if he just fell asleep with it on. Oh well... I got some sleep on and off until 10 am!

Then I got up and started making belgian waffles (from scratch) with strawberries, icecream and whipped cream... which is our tradition for Christmas breakfast. By the time everyone had eaten, Zoe (14) and Owen (7) had arrived from their dads... and so we finally got to open the presents. That seemed to go well.

Later, we (or our guests Ruth, Dennis and Annie) made: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, turnip, carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, peas, perogies, ham, home made bread, pickles, cranberry sauce, gravy, plus: several desserts which we never really got to... This is a fairly typical Canadian Christmas dinner (except my friend Ruth brought the ham and perogies which she said was her typical Polish Christmas fare).

My sister Dana lives down near San Francisco and she says that the Americans there usually do not have turkey for Christmas - (they have it at thanksgiving) - and so she makes a "Canadian Christmas dinner" each year for them.

It was really neat to walk around and see what the kids were doing this afternoon - several of them were enjoying the art supplies they got for gifts from us... I gave 4 of the girls art stuff, including: an ink set with special pens and paper, an acrylic paint set, a watercolour set and a pastel set (with canvas and/or paper for each). We like to encourage artistic endeavours here.
My dad, Zoe and I played scrabble this afternoon for a while.

I got some neat stuff: mostly books and a few movies. My two older daughters gave me a great gift certificate to go and buy clothes at a nicer women's store in town. That was pretty cool.

Tomorrow my brother Dan and his wife Jennifer and their baby Griffin are coming for the afternoon. Christmas isn't ending around here for a while yet.

Hope you had a great day with family and friends!