The Day After

A Couple Of Lovelies

Mountain Man

MitchThe Rapper

The Old Man And The Snow

10:00

Up early again, by 5:15 for some reason, perhaps the excitement of Christmas was too much for me or the thought that it's another year away.  Either way, I need more sleep, the lament of most in their 70's and above. It's an exciting day for us because our granddaughter Marlena and her Mom are flying in from Kansas City until Sunday.  Her Dad and brother are off skiing and she gets to come to the lake.  Yea.  It's 7:30 and I have finished writing as the lake is just barely visible, with islands of white where the snow landed on the ice.

Yesterday was a very different Christmas morning from what I remember a few years ago when we celebrated Christmas with our grandchildren.  First, the adults were the first ones up, not the kids.  And they slept in and in and in, not getting out of bed and coming downstairs until 10:30 or so.  And once down, they seemed in no hurry to open their presents.  In fact, Tyler demanded we have breakfast first, putting off the opening. So we did.

Lemon Sweet Rolls

Evie had made the lemon roll dough the night before, so she put the rolls together and baked them by 10:00.  They were ready for breakfast for all of us by 11:00 and we had them with scrambled eggs and bacon.  Finally, we started opening present around noon although if Tyler had his way, we would have waited. The grandchildren are at the age where they no longer want gadgets and it's almost impossible to buy them something they want or would wear.  So we have given up on presents and just give money, a cop out but they seem to like it.  Beth, however, is good at buying for her kids, so they had lots of presents to open, mostly clothes, jackets, tee's, and fleeces and they all seemed happy with their Christmas.  We miss the excitement of having young ones around but as they say, things change.  Our grandkids are all grown up for the most part.

Mom And Daughter

Getting Cozy And Crocheting 

We spent the first part of the afternoon just hanging out after cleaning up after breakfast and straightening the living room after the disarray of opening Christmas presents.  I can remember Christmas's when we tried to save the wrapping paper or bows for next year.  Not this year, as all ent in the trash.  Evie and Beth did some prepping for dinner while the grandkids played games with each other on either their iPhones or computers.  It seems to be addicting as they spend an inordinate amount of time on their devices, just like us I guess.

Hiking Long Point With The Family

Around 3:00, however, all six of us bundled up, some reluctantly, for a hike out to Long Point and back. So we drove over to the Long Point State Park Marina and parked our car and started our hike.  The boys immediately, like a couple of puppies, started throwing snowballs, climbing trees,  and playing in the snow.  It was not exactly a strenuous hike and we ended up waiting for them to finish their playfulness and just walk with us.  We did make it to Long Point and we all agreed that it felt enervating to be outside in the cold, but not for too long as toes and hands were cold by the time we returned to the car.

Victoria/Woodlawn

Lenny's and Davis'

We were back by 4:30 in time for Evie to put the prime rib in the oven and start prepping dinner.  The boys were hungry so she grabbed up some hanky pankies from the freezer, always a hit and she and Beth started to prep the sides, Brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, salad, and of course, the group favorite with prime rib, popovers.  We relaxed with beer or wine while the prime rib was roasting and did not sit down to eat until 7:00, much later than we thought.  Dinner was great.  How could it not be with prime rib, popovers, mashed potatoes, and gravy?  We did a pretty good job on everything as hardly anything was left, just a bit of prime rib for hot roast beef sandwiches for today's lunch.

We ended the night in the TV room watching the most recent Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise.  The kids seemed to like it but after an hour, Evie and I went up to bed, hoping to get a good night's sleep.  The others followed much later I assume, with no worries about whether they would sleep or not. Ah, Youth.