Christmas 2013
Christmas, to me, officially begins on the last day of
public school. That is when I can relax and know that I don’t have to make a
lunch each morning and take Kristin to school or the bus, to return to pick her
up from school in the afternoon.
Friday
2013 started with a neighborhood party two houses down. To keep
mom and dad in line, Kristin was invited to and attended a Thesbian club party
half an hour away. We hit the grocery store afterwards to load up with baking
items to prep for our company.
Saturday
Kevin traveled to San Angelo for a project Saturday morning.
Prep for Fenners – baking,
cleaning, wrapping and other food prep.
Sunday
Made “Almost 50” birthday sign for after church surprise
birthday party for Jenny.
Sun morning church service at PRF
Fun barbeque birthday party for Jenny at the Merlick’s with
Mom and Don, Melanie, Avery and Doug, Skip, Christa and Jesse. A beautiful
chocolate cake with mint icing for dessert!
We played Games, games, games before coming home!
Monday
Busy, busy in the morning, with long afternoon lunch at
Mel’s. Post office and other errands, back to Merlick’s, Daniel dropped off
Kevin from San Angelo, then we piled into the car to the grocery for steak
dinner and headed home.
Steaks, potatoes, butternut squash soup, green bean
casserole and beer bread made up the dinner in which we hosted the Wickham’s
and Melanie.
Mom and Don gave Ormsby’s our
Christmas gifts – a new microwave and other gifties!
After we had cookies and caramel corn for dessert, we played
a few board and made-up games.
Tuesday
Late steak, potatoes and eggs breakfast prepared by Matt.
Boys to airport to pick up Alison and conduct last minute
shopping.
Made Grandmother’s Mexican Wedding cake cookies.
Wrappingfest at the Ormsby’s to prep for Christmas giving.
Dress up and load up car to attend Christmas Eve candlelight
service with Christa joining the Wickham/Austin Merlick/Ormsby/Fenner clan at
Austin Ridge.
Meet at the Merlick’s afterwards for chili by J and J and
Jan and Mike, with Melanie, Christa, John, Jacob and Avery Rose and Avery and
Doug. Sweet potato soup, Chex mix, sugar cookies and caramel corn by the
Ormsbys, desserts, salads and other tasties enjoyed by all with wine and beer.
Sang Christmas carols in the neighborhood, to welcoming
neighbors!
A bit of dancing afterwards to warm up …
Home to continue wrapping and watch Miracle on 34th
St.
Wednesday, Christmas
Day
Pigs in a blanket awakened the troops.
Opened plenty of presents and made a mess.
Whipped up grandmother’s party potatoes, dressed and went to
Mom and Don’s.
Car-caroling led by Kristin and Allison on the ukulele was
fun on the road!
Enjoyed turkey, ham, broccoli, potatoes, salad and
gingerbread cake by Grammy and cheesecake by Melanie.
Opened more presents!
Jerry came along home with the Ormsby’s and played Risk
until 3 AM! (BTW – Kristin, an HH, won the game!)
We scarfed queso and chips, hummus and veggies, Lays and
onion dip, almonds and cookies and caramel corn while undergoing the drama.
Thursday
Boys are up by ten to go meet Bob Gruczynski in town and
then to the Merlick’s to set up the impossible trampoline with just a few
bashes and injuries.
The girls left for downtown to visit the Blanton, perused
the gift shop and grabbed a snack.
Back to the Merlick’s to meet the boys and Rachel, who was
mall shopping.
Fenner’s and Ormsby’s take Gru to the airport and on the
way, stop off at Patsy’s to enjoy a burger, tuna melt and crispy fish tacos.
Visited the Zilker park tree and spun around for a few minutes,
then stopped off at The Moon to partake of a beer and a few karaoke songs with
the DJ.
Ended the evening with a showing of the third Lord of the Rings movie. (snoring
commenced)
Friday
Waffles and bacon for breakfast.
Girl thrifting in Marble Falls, after a snack at Brother’s
Bakery. Bargains galore at Vintage Vogue and Bargain Barn.
Ali to the airport with a one hour window.
On to Mom’s for ham and turkey sandwiches, salad and awesome
salted caramel chocolate pecan pie.
Rockin’ Anniversary Party (Fenner’s 27th) with
the juke box set up to incredible 80’s music for the first hour and a half at
The Moon. Karaoke and star singing by Jenny, Matt, Karl, Danna, Kevin and Alee,
with additional dancers Liz, Michael and Julie.
Saturday
Grammy’s eggs with mushrooms, onion, garlic and cheese, served
with tasty rolls and San Fran coffee.
After packing and snacking, the crew loaded up and played at
Jerry’s for Pizza, while Avery and Doug joined the group on their 50th
wedding anniversary! Mom and Don joined us and brought salad, awesome pecan pie
and fresh fruit.
Packed into the car again, the Ormsby’s and Fenner’s made
the fourth trip to the airport in five days.
Ormsby’s drove home to enjoy a quiet house for the evening.
Sunday
After a peaceful church service, Ormsby’s were home in the
afternoon for laundry (thankfully using the Darwin’s dryer) and another
production of caramel corn for the Dallas bunch.
We began packing our things for the trip to Fort Worth in
the morning.
Monday
Another day of sleeping later than usual was in store for
us, but I was able to finish drying two more loads of laundry, wrap a few
Dallas presents, print a few Christmas photos for Dallas gifts, and make the
last batch of sugar cookies for the year.
Our original departure time of 1 pm occurred at 2 pm, in
which we caught up with the mail carrier to obtain a check.
We deposited the check, picked up a few items at the grocery
and hit I-35 by 3 pm.
Arriving much later than previously planned, we enjoyed a
cocktail with Dad and Malinda while watching the end of the first half of the
UT game (Horns lost L),
and then ate dinner at a superb restored gas station, Winslow’s for a tasty
meal, then retired to their home to watch the Texas Tech game (Red Raiders
won).
Gifts were exchanged before we went to dinner.
Tuesday, New Year’s
Eve
Slept in again, this time until ten, and then feasted on
tasty eggs, bacon and onion on flour tortillas and delicious fruit salad.
After Kristin gave us a mini-concert on the ukulele
Grandaddy gave to her, we headed east to Dallas to see Phil, Jr. and Kristin
with their new baby, Paisley, at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Before the ½ hour stop, we dined on two #1 boxes at In and
Out Burger and toured our old neighborhood.
Arrived at Gran’mom’s and exchanged gifts – with the Austin
Ormsby’s loading up on nuts, wine, cheese, soap and lotions.
After a respite from the road, the Ormsby’s dressed up in
fancy festivity clothes and drove to the Kravik’s to participate in their
annual New Year’s Eve celebration.
Wednesday, Happy 2014!
After a quick bite to
eat, we jumped in the car and went to Karen’s for the New Year’s Day meal.
On the menu was Turkey breast, spiral cut ham, crescent
rolls, scalloped potatoes, creamed corn, black eyed peas and cabbage.
For dessert were chocolate cupcakes, pineapple angelfood
cake and sugar cookies.
During a long visit we were able to see Kelly and Luis with
precious baby Landry, Macy and Luke. We jumped in the car and made it to
Dillard’s in Waco for one remaining hour of the 40% off previously reduced
merchandise. We all found bargains, but Rachel found the steal with a $400 BCBG
dress for $70.
The days following the excellent but exhausting week and a
half are a blur now (since I didn’t
write down any more details after the New Year’s day drive home). We probably
just did boring things like … catch up on work life (!) and that’s why this is
so late a posting. Now that this biggie is posted, maybe you’ll see more
writing this year!
