Christmas
This year for Christmas, Nick, Laura, and Colby came over to open presents with us. I got mostly bath bomb type things in my stocking, but also hot sauce and gum. For presents, I got bath salts, books, a nice Bible, beef jerky, phone cards, another year of antivirus from the same one I got last year, headphones, kitchen utensils, and a safe box. I had gotten a cute Izzy figurine earlier and our family got some duckies. I think Black Friday duck might have been forgotten about in all the craziness. He's still in his box under the tree. Griswold is on the tree and his patriotic companion is too. Another present that got forgotten about until yesterday was four jars of protein powder that Mom got me.
We had breakfast casserole, Christmas braid, eggnog, grapefruit, and juice for brunch, and later we had shrimp chowder and salad for dinner. I had made white chocolate dipped oreos the day before because we were almost out of Christmas candy and cookies. We also had gingerbread cookies, divinity, peanut brittle, and chocolate dipped cranberry jellies. Dad made pecan butter fudge for the candy plate too.
Mom's day was made when Nick gave her a card saying her present was on back order until August. He and Laura are going to have a baby.
The dogs also enjoyed their Christmas presents. I got Mochi a big chew bone which Colby promptly claimed and wouldn't let Mochi have it unless his back was turned. She really likes that chew bone and was finally able to chew on it after Colby left. I gave both of them homemade chicken dog biscuits. Beretta got four cans of Fancy Feast from me.
We stayed in over the weekend, and hit the Walmart up in Mooresville on Monday. It was ransacked, but I bought a 6-foot unlit tree for $11. I also bought two rolls of wrapping paper. I wanted lights and tinsel for that tree, but they were out of those both there and at Target. Target's Christmas section was even more ransacked than Walmart's. We also went to Oliie's, Ross, and World Market where I bought some random snacky things for New Year's. Hobby Lobby's Christmas stuff was pretty much gone too.
This year for baking, I learned how to melt and temper real chocolate, and I think it is much easier to work with than the compound discs or blocks. My bourbon ball recipe called for dipping them in real chocolate, and I had enough left over to dip the leftover gumdrops from my gumdrop cookie recipe that is also new this year. I also rolled some maraschino cherries in powdered sugar and dipped them too. The last things I dipped were leftover cranberry jellies I made on Thanksgiving. I only dipped three of them the day I made bourbon balls, but I had a leftover bar of dark chocolate that I melted later and dipped the rest of them in. I also dipped the last few caramels in that chocolate and a couple pieces of fudge just for fun. I would have dipped a piece of peanut butter fudge in it but Dad had eaten it all.
The overall candy list for this year was: two batches of caramels, two patches of peanut butter fudge, cranberry jellies, a double batch of gingerbread cookies, two batches of peanut brittle (Mom made.), a big batch of chocolate fudge, truffles, bourbon balls, gumdrop cookies, assorted dipped chocolates (cherries, gumdrops, caramels, jelly candy) , divinity, caramel poppers, and white chocolate dipped oreos, and pecan butter fudge (Dad made.).
I was bummed that I didn't get to go to an in-person church service during Advent at all. Dad wanted to stay home because of Covid. We did go to Christmas eve service, but it was the mask required one so I had trouble staying awake. I was yawning so much during worship. I would sing one line and then yawn during the next one so I missed half the lines of several songs.
One fun thing I did get to do before Christmas was go shopping with my Sunday school teacher and buy gifts for my classmates who are still in lockdown. We made them stockings, and we put what we couldn't fit in the stockings into buckets. We saw two of our three members. The other one is in a wheelchair now and couldn't come out.
I had my last volunteer day at the raptor center this past Monday. I will miss the birds and the people, but I still plan to stay in touch. There is a volunteer event that I plan on participating in the second weekend of January. They are pulling invasive non-native plants from the new trail. I also need to reserve two slots for the tour of the new center. I get first come first served because they had to cancel the tour that I had planned to go on. I had gone around and said good bye to the birds the Monday before Christmas, and Napoleon the cute little screech owl chittered at me. The kookaburra also talked to me. I need to make a post about some of the birds I liked from there.
I have had two budgie guests over Christmas. Sweet Caroline and Maximus are visiting, and Maximus makes cute little Rudy bell noises. Their cage is stacked on top of Izzy's.
We had breakfast casserole, Christmas braid, eggnog, grapefruit, and juice for brunch, and later we had shrimp chowder and salad for dinner. I had made white chocolate dipped oreos the day before because we were almost out of Christmas candy and cookies. We also had gingerbread cookies, divinity, peanut brittle, and chocolate dipped cranberry jellies. Dad made pecan butter fudge for the candy plate too.
Mom's day was made when Nick gave her a card saying her present was on back order until August. He and Laura are going to have a baby.
The dogs also enjoyed their Christmas presents. I got Mochi a big chew bone which Colby promptly claimed and wouldn't let Mochi have it unless his back was turned. She really likes that chew bone and was finally able to chew on it after Colby left. I gave both of them homemade chicken dog biscuits. Beretta got four cans of Fancy Feast from me.
We stayed in over the weekend, and hit the Walmart up in Mooresville on Monday. It was ransacked, but I bought a 6-foot unlit tree for $11. I also bought two rolls of wrapping paper. I wanted lights and tinsel for that tree, but they were out of those both there and at Target. Target's Christmas section was even more ransacked than Walmart's. We also went to Oliie's, Ross, and World Market where I bought some random snacky things for New Year's. Hobby Lobby's Christmas stuff was pretty much gone too.
This year for baking, I learned how to melt and temper real chocolate, and I think it is much easier to work with than the compound discs or blocks. My bourbon ball recipe called for dipping them in real chocolate, and I had enough left over to dip the leftover gumdrops from my gumdrop cookie recipe that is also new this year. I also rolled some maraschino cherries in powdered sugar and dipped them too. The last things I dipped were leftover cranberry jellies I made on Thanksgiving. I only dipped three of them the day I made bourbon balls, but I had a leftover bar of dark chocolate that I melted later and dipped the rest of them in. I also dipped the last few caramels in that chocolate and a couple pieces of fudge just for fun. I would have dipped a piece of peanut butter fudge in it but Dad had eaten it all.
The overall candy list for this year was: two batches of caramels, two patches of peanut butter fudge, cranberry jellies, a double batch of gingerbread cookies, two batches of peanut brittle (Mom made.), a big batch of chocolate fudge, truffles, bourbon balls, gumdrop cookies, assorted dipped chocolates (cherries, gumdrops, caramels, jelly candy) , divinity, caramel poppers, and white chocolate dipped oreos, and pecan butter fudge (Dad made.).
I was bummed that I didn't get to go to an in-person church service during Advent at all. Dad wanted to stay home because of Covid. We did go to Christmas eve service, but it was the mask required one so I had trouble staying awake. I was yawning so much during worship. I would sing one line and then yawn during the next one so I missed half the lines of several songs.
One fun thing I did get to do before Christmas was go shopping with my Sunday school teacher and buy gifts for my classmates who are still in lockdown. We made them stockings, and we put what we couldn't fit in the stockings into buckets. We saw two of our three members. The other one is in a wheelchair now and couldn't come out.
I had my last volunteer day at the raptor center this past Monday. I will miss the birds and the people, but I still plan to stay in touch. There is a volunteer event that I plan on participating in the second weekend of January. They are pulling invasive non-native plants from the new trail. I also need to reserve two slots for the tour of the new center. I get first come first served because they had to cancel the tour that I had planned to go on. I had gone around and said good bye to the birds the Monday before Christmas, and Napoleon the cute little screech owl chittered at me. The kookaburra also talked to me. I need to make a post about some of the birds I liked from there.
I have had two budgie guests over Christmas. Sweet Caroline and Maximus are visiting, and Maximus makes cute little Rudy bell noises. Their cage is stacked on top of Izzy's.