Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Post Christmas Wrap-up

Wow! What an exciting Christmas season we had this year. So exciting, in fact, that I am just now able to post something about the incredible activities in which my family participated in during the holidays. It's nothing fancy, merely a recount of what we did, so in ten years when Kevin, or one of the girls says, "remember when ...," we can look it up on whatever form of cloud is in existence at the time and state what exactly we ate for breakfast on Christmas Day, 2013.

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!



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