Hello Monday- Christmas weekend

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday

Our Christmas weekend was good- different but overall really good. I'll start with Friday though there may be some overlap with my Friday Photos post. (I forget what I wrote about for Friday.)

Friday, the 23rd, was an odd day because of the storm and freezing cold day. Donnie had work he had to do but he did it from home due to the snow/ ice that accumulated Thursday into Friday (we got about four and a half inches of snow) and bitter cold temperatures. It's so odd to have him home during the day- given that the day was near Christmas, it seemed so much to me that the day was Christmas Eve. Of course it wasn't. Most of the day on Friday, I had to *pleasantly* remind myself that the following day was Christmas Eve, thereby giving me another day to finish wrapping presents, getting the house ready for guests and prepping as much as I could for hosting a big meal on Christmas Day. 

Saturday, the 24- Christmas Eve- the day almost peaked at 7:30 am because I slept in until then (it's the little things...) . Here's what happened in between: I realized for certain that our new oven was a lemon. Yes, the oven to replace the oven that stopped working the previous weekend is a bust. I noticed it was taking a super long time to heat up water on the stove and for the oven to heat up to 350 degrees. On Christmas Eve, I decided to bake the turkey for Christmas. Since the oven seemed a bit off, I didn't want to worry about timing its completion with the time we wanted to eat so I decided to make it on Saturday and then warm it up on Sunday. When the oven heated up- ostensibly to 350- for the bird, I felt the oven and it felt way less hot than 350. (You kind of just know what temperatures feel like.) Donnie agreed with me when I had him feel the air in the oven. I had no confidence that the turkey was going to cook and I panicked a lot little. We asked our neighbors to cook the turkey in their oven. They were so kind and let us do that. I was pretty upset about the oven but there was nothing I could do about it. At least it seemed to heat up a little. But very bad timing for a meal with many people and quite a few number of dishes that would, ideally, be cooked at the correct temperature. 

The chocolate box that I left in our neighbor's house who let us use their oven- Our neighbors had to leave their house to run errands but said they'd leave the door open so that I could check on the bird. Bless their hearts!! I left some chocolates on their kitchen island as a thank you. I never stop trying to be puny so I wrote, "Thank you "birdy" much!!" 

Donnie and Jacob spent part of the day shoveling the driveway of a friend who just had surgery and couldn't shovel. It took them a while because they took frequent breaks due to the extreme cold. Friends gifted the boys with lunch and they came home with a box of our favorite cookies from our favorite bakery as thanks. So I guess it was a day to help others and show gratitude...

The cooked bird- I truly don't think it would have cooked in our oven. 

Late in the afternoon we went to church for a Christmas Eve service. It was a great service with hymns and a message of salvation and hope. Straight from church, we headed to West Chester to eat dinner and to spend the evening celebrating Christmas Eve with relatives.

Alyssa's boyfriend came with us to church and to West Chester. His family had plans to leave town and go out of state for Christmas. They decided not to travel with the bad weather that our area and the area they were headed to got. Since the family was planning on being out of town Christmas Eve, they didn't have plans so Alyssa's boyfriend spent the evening with us. 

I only took one picture of our time in West Chester. Our relatives celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah and so they lit the menorah and discussed the tradition of lighting the menorah. 

Sunday, the 25th- Christmas Day- woke up very early but got back to sleep until 8:00 am. I was on a roll!! We got started with the day. I put the ham in the oven warming unit and then we opened presents.

It was fun to see what the kids got (I wrapped everything but don't have a great memory. In addition, I wrapped some of the gifts a long time ago- many things transpired between the wrapping and the opening, lol). They loved everything!!

Then it was time to get ready for guests and a meal, such as it would be, with a faulty oven. 

Abby helped me quite a bit with the side dishes and we had everything in order for when our guests arrived. The food ended up heating up ok- we made carrots that we cooked on the stove- they took forever but I anticipated that so I got a an early start with them- and added honey and butter to them when they were cooked, mashed potatoes (again, they took way longer than they should have but I knew they would), stuffing that I made in the microwave to avoid using the oven, ham, turkey, and I made a Swiss cheese dip that everyone loves (and the kids expect me to make every Christmas since they love it so much!). Everyone brought something to share so we also had sweet potato casserole, cranberries, a veggie tray, meatballs and lots of desserts. Then it was round two of gifts.  

When our guests left, I talked to my siblings on the phone and discussed plans for us to all (hopefully!) get together this week. Then the five us played a game called New Phone, Who Dis? It was a fun game with some playing cards discussing mature themes. I simply took those cards out of the deck prior to our playing. Easy, peasy, PG squeezy.

So thankful for a great celebration despite set backs, safe travels on not clear roads at all (when we traveled to West Chester on Christmas Eve, we took the interstate (I-75) and it was slow going due to snow covered roads. None of the roads in town and in our neighborhood were clear over the weekend) and lots of family time over the weekend!