This post is about how our holiday unfolded. It all started on Saturday. Stephanie, Nicky, Jordan and Robbie were the first to arrive. Mindy and Justin arrived soon after with Morgan and Olly getting here around 4-ish.
For dinner, I made St. Louis pizza, St. Louis toasted ravioli, and St. Louis Italian salad (Nashville doesn't know how to make Italian salads). I had the provel cheese to make that happen!
Little did I know that amidst the mess and chaos which is Christmas, Jordan would decide to add to it. She wanted to pull all of the American Girl stuff out of the attic.
Plus, we need the room for our annual dance party!!
There are only 7 of us for Christmas dinner. That's an easy number to cook for. I did an 8 lb. turkey this year and sent everyone home with bento boxes. In case you don't know what they are, I bought these:
Little did I know that I would be doing 4 loads of doll clothes!! Jordan was a little unsure whether the clothes and accessories could hold up to it. It gave me a chance to preach again how I never baby anything! I wash everything--including leather shoes (and suitcase wheels). I figure that you have nothing to lose. If said item is filthy or stained, then just wash it. If for some reason it falls apart, you needed to let it go anyway. 99% of the time, whatever you wash will come out much better than when you put it in.
Even this cute little jumper came out perfect. I washed a little wool coat (seen here with the black velvet collar---perfect!
When it was all said and done, a little pompom came off which could be glued back. There was a little buckle from a pair of white overalls that fell off. I still have it if Jordan ever wants to try to put it back on. She left all of this behind. The little sock from the Minnie Mouse outfit turned up while I was doing my regular laundry this week. I don't expect that these little items will be retrieved any time soon as they've packed it all back up and stowed it in a closet rather than back in the attic. I'm okay with that. Things in attics, basements or garages just deteriorate.
Here they are all dressed up and looking all cute again! Yes, we are also storing all of the trunks, beds, strollers, bikes, cradles and various other pieces of furniture and bric a brac. Actually it's makes me happy to see that they got so much joy out of "playing" with their dolls. They can't kid me--they were playing!
At our traditional---big breakfast on Christmas Eve (bacon, little smokies, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, biscuits and gravy and a fruit salad), we opened our "Secret Santa" gifts. This year the theme was "date night." It was a hit--as always.
Next up, we presented Olly with his tiles for the family Scrabble wall.
When we added Justin to the wall, we were very clear with the girls of the names that would fit--so they should carefully choose their husbands! Well, right off the bat, Morgan comes up with Olly!! Since we could not fit his name anywhere with the 5 inch tiles, we had to go with regular size ones---about one inch.
Little did I know that Olly wouldn't know how to place them! Everyone knows that they need to butt up to each other! That's okay, we'll take him anyway he comes!!! He's planning to make some larger ones for his spot, If they turn out well, he'll be in charge of keeping up with any other family additions. Maybe those regular sized tiles could be reserved for the babies to come! I think that would be cute.
In case you don't remember, we did this wall in 2011 as an homage to my mom. She and dad started me on Scrabble with my 2 and 3 letter words at age 4 or 5. We played from then on. I didn't beat her for the first time until I was about 22! After that, we were pretty evenly matched.
Okay, back to Christmas.
In the afternoon, everyone does their job. Jordan got the pickle-roll-ups this year, Everyone hates that job, and peeling shrimp (although it was a cinch for Butch this year since I got the peeled ones). Nicky got peeling potatoes. I swear, I think it's the first time he's ever done it. I found out later that it took him over 30 minutes to do 7 medium potatoes! After jobs, we girls painted Christmas ornaments and watched the movie Spirited while Morgan, Jordan and Mindy made beaded Christmas bracelets. Morgan and Jordan each made me one.
This one is worth repeating. I just love it! My favorite photo of Christmas.
We've all done the pajama thing---but usually within each family. We've never done the whole family matching--love it. Still, it's a once and done. We don't need 500 pairs of pajamas. Plus who wants to wear Christmas outside of the holiday?
I love this picture. Jordan has been the gift sorter and hander-outer since she could read the tags--maybe 5 or so. Robbie has joined her this year.
We move all the furniture out of the way so there is plenty of room and everyone can see what each other gets.
Then it's on to family games. Our current favorite is Codenames.
It's one of the quieter games in our repertoire. Usually we always play the boys against the girls. Stephanie wanted to switch it up this year. I told her that nobody would remember whose team they were on. Right off the bat no one knew who was on their team. Still we managed. Really fun.
There's a lot to cram in to one day! But we want to do it all. Now with people living away, we have to cram it all in. I'm excited for next year when the girls do all the planning and just tell me what they want me to do.
On Christmas morning everyone has to get the room put back together while I'm cooking and Nicky is making Bloody Mary's. 
Jenni, Nicky's mom comes over and we watch the Disney celebration together.
A 20 pack for $15.00. I put all of the casseroles and turkey on the counter and had everyone take a box and file through and make their own meal for later. It was so much easier than trying to come up with enough containers for everybody. Plus, by the time I made Butch and mine, all the food was gone. No waste at all! These containers are ready to pop in the microwave. The only thing I had leftover was the cranberries. And that's more about the fact that I think only 3 of us eat them. I might have to re-think that next year. You can't exactly make a half package of cranberries. Actually I can if I make some cranberry muffins. Yeah, that's what I'll do!
Well, I think that's a "wrap" for Christmas 2023. Time to start thinking 2024.
Sounds like you had a wonderful family time! That scrabble wall is a cute idea and I hope that Olly can find a way to make his name the same size as everyone else. Love the photo of the matching PJs!
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