We had a wonderful Christmas with Geoff, Melissa, Elijah and Miles. It began Christmas Eve with a lovely church service where Melissa sang in the choir and all the Armstrong men wore white shirts and Christmasy ties.
As tradition has it in our family, Christmas Eve is seafood night and the more the better. We indulged in mussels, oysters, Maryland crab cakes, shrimps, and oyster soup. Melissa had a steak cooked by Glen. We also enjoyed Bessie's cranberry salad, another traditional Christmas Eve dish which Elijah loved. Geoff has a small wine cellar and we tried one of his favourites.
The kids were excited about Santa coming although they told Grampy that all he would get was a lump of coal as he had distrupted the building of the gingerbread house the day before. Even Miles knows you are not supposed to eat the icing before it has hardened.
Christmas morning, Melissa was first up at 5:00 and by 6:30 all the adults were up. The kids kept to their room until 7:00 as is their routine but were thrilled to see Santa had come when they raced downstairs. They tore into their presents in an orderly manner thanking whoever gave them the gift whether they were present in the room or not.
Glen was surprised to see a lump of coal beside his stocking as it had not been there when he went to bed. It brought back memories of a time when we wrapped the same lump and gave it to his Dad as a Christmas present. It had come from our old apartment in Ottawa and was a reminder of a time when the furnace burned coal.
Santa brought the grandmonkeys nerf guns which were a big hit, in more ways than one. They used them as ground-t0-air missiles. Screams of laughter and wails of frustration that always happen at Christmas made the morning exciting. We finally finished opening presents at 10:00, having stopped to enjoy Geoff's homemade cinnamon buns partway through the present opening.
Christmas lunch was a variety of fancy cheeses (Melissa even found one she liked), leftover shrimp, olives, and an endive Caesar salad that Melissa created. The kids did not want to nap for fear of missing something. The adults played Wii Resort which was lots of fun.
Fro Christmas dinner, Geoff rotisseried the turkey after letting it sit in a savory brine overnight. It was delicious. He made a fancy dressing with apples, celery root and fennel as well as sweet potatoes while Melissa whipped up an awesome batch of mashed potatoes. We finished with the Christmas pudding I had made back in October and its accompanying sauce.
The kids went to bed exhausted and we followed a short time later.
The United States doesn't celebrate Boxing Day so there were no big sales or crowds at the shopping centers so Melissa and I ventured out to get groceries and my birthday present. She also wanted to use her new Tom-Tom. She gets lost a lot when driving so this GPS device should help her. We laughed because the Tom-Tom wanted her to take the freeway to the store but Melissa didn't want to so it kept telling her to make a U-turn. It was very funny.
One thing that makes Boxing Day special is leftovers. We indulged in another turkey feast and the boys broke up the gingerbread house for dessert.
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