Christmas Night with the Guys

Christmas is never a one day thing in our family.
Actually...no holiday ever is.
If there's one thing we Vermeers know how to do, it's how to stretch out a special occassion to make it last as long as possible in order to enjoy it to the fullest.
Birthdays last a week.
Easter is a 2 day celebration.
And Christmas is no different.

After a lazy Christmas afternoon,Friday, that evening found us preparing a big dinner at Greg's to celebrate with him and Alex.
The internet and phone lines were down, so that forced the kids to actually spend time with us old folks! LOL

Now...you all know me. I am no cook. I dont even pretend to be.
I've never made a whole ham, nor roasted a turkey. I just have no Better Crocker nor Julia Child genes in my body.
So...I improvised.
----I bought ham steaks...and I fried them.
Which, as it turned out, were very good (we all love fried ham) and was different than the dinner the guys had had over at Vampira's.

I also prepared Julienne potatoes, corn on the cob, a relish tray of various pickels and olives, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, and yeast rolls (Sister Schubert makes them better than I could ever hope to!)
It was all very YUM!

Once our bellies were full, the kids were bursting at the seams to open gifts from Greg.
He got them each a game for their various systems (Trey-PSP, Matthew-XBox 360, and Molly-Nintendo DS). They were thrilled. Turns out they were all "the best games ever", and better than the ones I had given them! (what they didn't know was that I actually picked those games out for them when Greg and I went shopping!)

Alex went next. Greg had gotten him a dvd burner, some high dollar utility tool he wanted, and a laptop cooler pad thingy. I gave him a big case of blank dvds and filled a stocking for him. He was very pleased as well.

I gave Greg 3 new work shirts with the KTSS emblem embroidered on them. He was happy. Also a Calvin and Hobbes book. We all love Calvin!
And a stocking full of goodies.

He brought out my pressies. I opened the one from Vampira Joyce first. It was a SNUGGIE!!!! Well, not the Snuggie brand, but similar. like this one. only in a deep red color.

I'd been wanting one of those because I freeze to death over at Greg's house at night when we are watching tv. He keeps his house set on about 72 degrees, and he burns up while I shiver to death!
It was perfect!

Next I opened a big gift from Greg...an electric blanket for my bed. Yes...the man does listen to what I say sometimes! And it's dual contolled.


Next came a "Pedi-Paws" to trim Maggie's nails. She is scared to death of it!


Then came the best of all.
a new GPS for me!!

Now I don't have to borrow John's everytime I want to go on a trip!

I named her Lola...Lola the locater. LOL

He laughingly told me that it didn't mean I could go galavanting all over the country now!

It was a nice evening. We prepared the brisket and got it in the oven to slowcook all night so it would be ready to take to mom's the next morning. Then we collapsed on the couch to the sound of nothing but Criminal Minds reruns on the tv. The kids were all playing their new games. Alex sat in the living room with us watching tv.
It was very nice.

It felt like family.

I'll post our family Christmas pics next. It was a wild time as usual there!