Festivties Are Over, Back To The Lake

New Sweater, New Hat

Hayden At Rest

We decided to just get up whenever, not worry about what time we leave.  So it's just after 6:00 and Evie and I are both up, sipping coffee, talking about brewpubs with Drew.  He and his brothers and Dad are hitting a new one later in the day which is why it was brought up.  You can see what's on our minds! We should be off for Chautauqua some time around 7:00, in the rain of course.
Yesterday was not the classic Christmas Day, of snow, Christmas carols, and carving a turkey which is all right with me.  We were up and opening presents by 7:15 as I recall, the girls up, for once, early. They were excited of course about their presents and were not disappointed.  Everyone seemed to get things they wanted for the most part; Halle's favorite was the hot chocolate maker, Hayden's a backpack, with matching lunch bag and wallet.  I got a cool vest, Evie some neat earrings.  So, as I mentioned, it was a good Christmas for all, short lived as always, with just a bit of the post Christmas blues.

We had the breakfast the kids wanted, as Evie made crepes for all of us,  Jill browned some sausage and Halle made hot chocolate.  We like out crepes with lemon and sugar, so they were easy to make. Afterwards, the girls organized their presents, put on their new pajamas and hung out in their rooms. Drew and I took a long walk late morning with Coco because the rain had stopped, the sky lightened a bit.

What to do after all the opening of the presents.  We couldn't go outside because it was raining
We really had nothing to do the rest of the day so Drew got the bright idea of going to the movies to see the comedy Daddy's Home, with Will Ferrell.   Surprisingly, there was quite a line to get tickets though there were plenty of empty seats in the theater.  The movie was a typical silly comedy, with Will Farrell playing the dolt who slowly learns how to be a man.  In between some of the grosser parts, it had some funny scenes.  The girls loved it, so that 's why we went.  To hear them laugh.

Couch Time

We were home by 2:30, got out the appetizers of shrimp, spanokopita's, and chips and dip, and sat around eating and talking for a couple of hours, watching the NBA occasionally.  By 4:00, a couple of us had fallen asleep, tired from getting up so early and full from our appetizers. Marlena Face Timed us from Kansas City and it sounds like they had a great Christmas as well.

Around 6:00, everyone was awake, downstairs in the living room, as we debated whether to have dinner or not and decided to hold off till 7:00 and hope the rains stopped because we were going to cook outside.  So we punted for an hour and found a movie on TV the girls wanted to watch called Monster In Law, with Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda.  I smartly kept my mouth shut and just watched until it was time to cook the ground beef koftes.

Drew and I grilled them outside and thankfully, the rain had stopped and the moon came out briefly.  It was actually a nice warm night, like late summer, a good night to have a beer and grill.

Christmas Barbecue

While we were outside, the girls were inside getting dinner ready and Halle, the burgeoning chef, was a big help with everything as the pictures suggest.  Hayden, too, was a big help.

Making Salad With Mom

Jill and Halle, Helping Evie

Our unusual Christmas dinner, Iskender kebabs, koftes with pide, meat, tomato sauce and yogurt was just what we wanted.  We finished the evening off with ice box pudding while watching the rest of the movie.  We only got up to have another piece of the ice box pudding.